Kanye West to sell Yeezy Gap Balenciaga items for $20 as he launches Ye24 presidential run

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West is not done with his US presidential dreams. Following his failed bid for the White House in 2020, in which he received a total 70,000 votes, Ye has announced he’s running again in 2024.

“It’s simple … It’s just we’re moving towards the future,” he tells celebrity news site X17 during a tour of his Los Angeles workshop.

In the video, in which employees can be seen sitting behind sewing machines, garments are laid out on tables and spread across the floor, many of them with the label Ye24.

“I’ve cut up 100 hoodies, from Yeezy, from Balenciaga, from stuff we did with Gap, from stuff we did with adidas, and everything we do is gonna cost $20,” Ye explains.

“We need to make sure that everyone can receive the same level of cut, the same level of food, same level of water and the same level of education.”

Ye signed a 10-year deal with Gap in 2020 to create a line of clothing under the Yeezy Gap brand. The first product from the line — a blue puffer jacket — sold out within hours of the launch last year.

In January, Ye, who has a long-running relationship with Balenciaga’s creative director Demna, announced the two were launching a Yeezy Gap X Balenciaga line. The first collection was unveiled in February, with items starting at $120.

The Yeezy Gap X Balenciaga collection has been unveiled, and already there is a waiting list. All photos: Gap

By September, however, Ye’s lawyers said they were terminating the partnership with Gap, alleging the company had failed to meet its obligations by not selling Yeezy Gap-branded products at its outlets and failing to open dedicated stores for the brand.

Then, early in October, Ye put on a hugely controversial show on the sidelines of Paris Fashion Week where he wore a T-shirt with “White Lives Matter” on it, which drew widespread condemnation. He followed the furore with a series of controversial statements, including an outburst denounced as anti-Semitic.

A few days later, Balenciaga severed ties with the rapper last month, telling WWD it no longer had “any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

A week later, German sportswear retailer adidas announced it was also ending its hugely successful partnership with Ye over his offensive and anti-Semitic remarks.

Gap, too, said it was taking “immediate steps” to remove Yeezy Gap merchandise from its stores following Ye’s controversial comments. The company also shut down its YeezyGap.com website, which now redirects back to the Gap homepage.

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In the X17 video posted to YouTube on Monday, Ye was accompanied by far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, whom the rapper referred to as his campaign manager.

“This is Milo right here, working on the campaign,” Ye says in the video.

Yiannopoulos, a former writer at the right-wing website Breitbart, is known for his hateful stances on Islam, feminism and his association with anti-Semitic figures. He has been permanently banned from Twitter since 2016 following a series of controversial posts, and is barred from travelling to Australia following his comments about the horrific 2019 mosque massacre in New Zealand which left 50 people dead.

Ye, whose account was locked for an unspecified time by Twitter last month following the anti-Semitic comments, returned to the platform on Monday, posting “Shalom”, the Hebrew word for “peace”.

Visitors look at Kanye West ‘Grammy Worn’ Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototype sneakers, right, on display during a Sotheby’s auction preview in Hong Kong, China, 17 April 2021. The shoes were worn by West in February 2008 during his performance at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. EPA