All this versatility led him to sign a ten-year deal with the Gap apparel line offering “high-quality, modern basics for men, women and children at affordable prices.” “The deal will give Yeezy the ability to sell at both high and low prices, and his Yeezy business will make him one of the most recognizable names in footwear — and one of the most profitable, according to Bloomberg, which valued Yeezy at $3 billion last year. The shoe offering also served as “its own” for ready-to-wear, with each “season” of “its” brand Yeezy sparking a new wave of luxury clothing hype, boiling down to its simplest expression, the apparel that ultimately caused the current dominance of athleisure. Instead of settling for his musical fame, he pursued his passions – fashion, sneakers, design – to ensure that his brand would never be limited to one thing or subject to ever-changing tastes like art. But in typical Kanye style – pun intended – he wanted more creative control and moved on after the second iteration, which may have been even more popular than the first. You can’t be all things to all people – something he hopefully learned from his disastrous political attempt last year – but he can always expand his interests so that he isn’t stuck in a pigeonhole. Instead, it’s more than the media segment that mocks him and his fashion and sneaker design. A few years later, he took advantage of his creative experience at Nike and moved to Adidas, w he launched the Yeezy Boost line. This trend-though largely ignored and undermined by the media-is one of the main reasons he is still . He refuses to embrace it, and so, whether he hates it or loves it, he’s probably to stay. But Kanye’s innate stubbornness kept him from limiting himself to creating just one clothing line-though he tried one, Pastel, that never blossomed. When he teamed up with Nike to create the Nike Air Yeezy in 2009, he released one of the most coveted shoes in sneaker history, Nike’s first signature shoe for non-athletes and a turning point in running animal culture. But don’t worry: Despite his interest in couture, he was flexible in his choices. He also worked with Louis Vuitton, w he spent two years learning how to “design” women’s shoes, apparently sneaking into Giuseppe Zanotti’s factory. Insisting that he would become one of the fashion industry’s leading designers, he made a style choice that was considered bold at the time. Launching a clothing line was also a rite of passage into rap at the time; 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Eminem, Eve, Jay-Z, Nelly, Pharrell and T.I. had already done so.
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