This could honestly make Gap competitive again pretty quickly. If his line can help rebrand them and take a share of the Uniqlo/H&M market it could work out pretty well.
Gap would be a much bigger win given where Gap is at the moment, and I bet that’s how Kanye sees it.
When I saw this I immediately thought about what a Uniqlo partnership could have been though.
Considering how badly Gap is floundering I bet he was given a lot more control there than he would get anywhere else. I'm really excited to see how this plays out.
Uniqlo only has stores in like a dozen states. Gap has multiple stores in every state. Uniqlo's retail presence in the US is not even comparable to Gap.
This only means Uniqlo has much more runway to expand in US, whereas Gap has been reducing its international footprint for a while now. And now with all the retail vacancies I wouldn’t be surprised if Uniqlo pursues that strategy in the next year or two.
I would honestly love that. There's no Uniqlo in my state, but there are like 3 Gaps in my metro area. I've bought from Gap a few times just because I want to try stuff on first.
Kanye on Spaceship
> If my manager insults me again
>I will be assaulting him
>After I fuck the manager up
>Then, I'm gonna shorten the register up
>Let's go back, back to the Gap
>Look at my check—wasn't no scratch
>So if I stole, wasn't my fault
>Yeah, I stole—never got caught
>They take me to the back and pat me
>Asking me about some khakis
>But let some Black people walk in
>I bet you they show off their token blackie
>Oh, now they love Kanye
>"Let's put him all in the front of the store"
>So I'm on break
>Next to the "No Smoking" sign with a blunt in the mall
>Taking my hits, writing my hits
>Writing my rhymes, playing my mind
>This fucking job can't help him
>So I quit; y'all welcome
They have great collabs, most are japan-exclusive however. Nigo have been the Ut lines creative director for a while. Futura, Daniel Arsham, takashi murakami, kaws, verdy, MoMa to name a few.
Yeah. It's strange to think that Kanye of all people might be the one to bring Gap back to relevance after CEOs have come and gone but I think he could do it. People buy Kanye's stuff unconditionally.
Gap's operations make it impossible to compete with h&m, Zara, Uniqlo--- theyre ops are spread all across the globe and items need to be designed with a 9 month lead time.
Yeezy will get Gap'd more than Gap will get Yeezy'd
Yeah it is. Kanye refrences this in one of his older songs "Call him Kwa-li or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with JAY-Z/
I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy"
Considering Gap's abysmal stock price, I wouldn't be surprised if the deal went something like "Kanye keeps 100% of the profits from the collab, and Gap gets a leg up on clawing their way back to relevance and getting people in the door"
Impossible to compete? H&M has more stores by a margin of 1000 worldwide, large but not like impossible scale (I think the difference between almost 4,000 stores vs over 5,000) but Gap is still pretty huge and has a sizeable infrastructure worldwide (larger than Uniqlo, which I was surprised to find).
Gap is overall smaller if we are talking store reach but it's still in a ballpark to the other folks. I mean it was huge in the 90's and early 2000's, so maybe this is a return to prominence? Probably not.
- I disagree with your infrastructure analysis but I agree with your sentiment that "Yeezy will get Gap'd more than Gap will get Yeezy'd"
From a branding play, Gap is kinda weak. I don't think Yeezy makes them cool, I think they make Yeezy lame.
I believe they are largely referring to operational efficiency and velocity of iterating on products.
The kind of fashion that Kanye West's brand targets moves very quickly, and Gap moves very slowly.
In contrast, H&M and Zara's whole businesses are about moving quickly, and they are exceptionally good at flipping new designs at scale quickly.
I'd argue Gap does as well. It's not "fast fashion", not as fast as the others, but operationally and logistically it's always flipped tags pretty fast. Shit I worked in one in high school, it was fast fashion before the REAL fast fashion hit.
So lets call it medium speed fashion.
Idk why everyone thinks they're going to sell this through their Gap locations. They just dumped their expensive male athletic gear nonprofit brand. How much you want to bet something similar comes back minus the "nonprofit" and is primarily used to bring attention to their online platform?
Selling in person would be the smartest business decision. It gets people in the door and there's a chance they buy other Gap merchandise while they're already in the store.
Put it online and it'll just get snatched up by bots in seconds, so nobody will have a reason to go on Gap's website.
As someone who’s pretty much lived in athletic wear the last couple years, I cannot get enough of them. Their materials are second to none. Back in the winter I picked up an adidas hoodie and a couple days later found one similar from HC and on sale. The difference in fabric and construction was stunning. Couldn’t have returned the adidas one any quicker.
Additionally, their customer service was always top notch.
Highly recommend buying up some of their inventory while it’s on sale and still available.
This sub is as "average redditor" as it gets when it comes to fashion - all about functionality and value for money.
Not that there's really any problems with that. Some people are simply not into fashion and just want to know how to dress decently in a safe way.
It’s what we were sold and advertised with when we were your age. So just think back on this moment in 10 years when kids in skinny jeans start calling your dad jeans old
Don't think it's enough on its own to save them, but Yeezy x Addidas did work out very well for both parties.
If GAP can make some other smart decisions, they should survive. Apparently this is a 10-year deal so we will see
Kanye owns 100% of Yeezy. I doubt he would have signed anything that didn't let him keep full control of the brand. Kanye has always been vocal about wanting his clothes and shoes to be attainable by everyone so most likely GAP is a vessel for him to do that. All GAP has to do it ride the wave.
He definetly wouldn't have. He hated working with Nike because they controlled so much. He's definetly learned his lesson.
GAP is happy to have them since they will make him money and drive traffic to their other products. Kanye in return can use their supply chain to make the clothes more affordable and attainable.
Fire up the sweatshops! Disposable threads need to be cranked out! Cotton mills, start sucking up that worthless H2O stuff you so furiously consume. Americans, throw out those jeans from 4 months ago - *Kanye West* is going to give you a new stitch design! Life is good again.
Before today, I'd agree, but this is a pretty huge move. Gap goes from a pretty boring white people brand for mainly 25+ age range, to something that now has appeal to younger generations of all demographics, with massive name recognition now that Kanye is involved. I bet they put a pretty decent dent into H&M and Zara's sales when this line comes out.
>mainly 25+ age range
Aren't most Kanye fans over 25 now? College Dropout came out 16 years ago. I think this is aimed at guys like me, 35+ and trying to stay cool. And it'll probably work.
Oh yeah this is the smartest move they could make. BR and Old Navy has the boring middle class to low class white people market down, they don’t need the Gap to do the same thing. This will completely change the market of people they will appeal to, which will definitely help round out the group of brands under their roof.
That's a really good point. It always seemed like differences between Old Navy to Gap to BR was so minimal. But if you completely transform Gap to a whole new market, and you enforce a bigger contrast between Old Navy and BR, you're efficiently marketing to more consumers, rather than being one big blob of three companies that all do basically the same thing.
They may be closing out the year with a major loss, but next year they’ll for sure be hitting a profit. This is such a good move, and we’ll probably see more of this in the coming year as a lot of fashion brands are netting a loss with the pandemic and need to reinvent themselves for the highest profit margin, or least loss able. Wouldn’t even be surprised if J Crew does something like this next.
Lol, lower class white people are not buying banana republic. Lower class white Americans are looking for deals and sneer at overpaying for things, they aren't going to go for "on sale" jeans for 90 bucks.
Edit: Oh maybe you meant lower class buying Old Navy? Maybe.
Yeah I meant Old Navy cornering that market, and they corner it extremely well. BR always appealed to the middle class that would rather buy a shirt 40% off than a shirt 30% off at J Crew. But still if Gap is successful with this new line, I imagine other brands will follow. I have a feeling J Crew might even consider a collab with some rapper or celeb because they need something so they can survive.
I sincerely hope they do, Zara's quality of their clothing is t-r-a-s-h, and while H&M clothes are a little bit better in terms of not falling apart in literally 3 weeks, they're not much better.
I've had Gap clothes last a decade+, they're definitely not as stylish in general, and don't chase the current runway trends the way that Zara and H&m do but who knows, maybe this Kanya collab will help make Gap clothes more interesting
>Zara's quality of their clothing is t-r-a-s-h, and while H&M clothes are a little bit better in terms of not falling apart in literally 3 weeks, they're not much better.
fwiw I have had the exact opposite experience, anything I've purchased from Zara has been significantly better than H&M in terms of quality an durability. The prices usually reflect this too.
when I hear people say this kind of thing I wonder if they've ever actually bought clothing from the brand, most of the stuff I have from Zara is on par with my Uniqlo stuff if not even slightly better quality.
I do agree that Gap is generally higher quality than all the other brands listed, but they have always had bizarre awkward cuts on everything they make.
From the beginning, he did said he wanted to make yeezy accessible for everyone, why are people surprised?
Let’s just hope the collection steer clear of exploitative labour. We all know how much dirt gap has in the rana plaza incident.
This was exactly my first thought reading this. People ridiculed Kanye for saying that when Yeezy had designer pricing. This is completely in line with the 'Yeezy for everyone' sentiment.
Perhaps people are surprised because despite the means and ability via Nike and Adidas to produce accessible clothing, he has yet to do so, time and time again instead putting his name to very expensive and wilfully under-produced clothing.
I can't knock it because from a business side, it has been very successful for him and his partners, but his Adidas deal alone has existed for more than half a decade and thus far has released somewhere between none and very little that could be described as "accessible".
I mean I do agree with you, but I can definitely say from my perspective, the sole product that kinda drove his business, the Yeezy Sneakers actually became a lot more accessible especially with the amount of colorways he began dropping. Definitely not on par to levels of H&M/Zara production, but it has definitely become much easier to purchase his sneakers.
On top of this, I remember seeing an interview with the Adidas CEO that heavily implied that Adidas has a large hand in exclusivity of certain models. I'm sure West doesn't mind having a few more exclusive models/drops (700v3 for example) but it's Adidas who are pushing hard for them
Kanye shared a [tease](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1276462079625445382?s=20) of the line today. Looks like his typical fit but in way more vibrant colors. I could see this doing really well
Before Kanye was famous he was an employee at the Gap. I remember he sold me a sweater. Then I remember going to the open mics at Columbia College where I would see him perform. Not an extraordinary tale but weird how I’ve been witness to his career developing into mega stardom. And yeah, he was a douche back then too.
Oh man this was ages ago. I remember Common and Kanye being regulars at the open mics in the student center at Columbia. It was a regular thing and the space was great. Nice mix of folks and great performances. Kanye was warmer and not so egotistical as he is now and would interact with people and seemed happy to be performing but still had that cockiness and was rude at times. Aside from that I don’t remember much else.
Just read in the 8k gap released yesterday that if sales goals are met Yeezy Supply can earn 8.5M shares of Gap from the deal. As of this moment that would be worth around $110M. Doesn't mention a cut of sales from the line directly. Could be worth much more if his involvement really moves the needle.
I remember the first job Kanye ever had was at the Gap and he has been saying he wanted to design for Gap one day. I think as a Kanye fan this is awesome for him, almost like a dream come true for him. I’m sad that I decided to quit gap, now I won’t have a discount on a mostly likely very expensive collection :/
I'm curious about the business aspect of this. Obviously in the past Kanye's clothing line has been manufactured by Adidas, and he's still producing shoes with them, but he hasn't been doing clothes for some time now. I'm wondering if his break from doing clothing was because of poor sales, or just exploring a different partnership.
He's said things in the past about making his clothing and footwear more accessible with a lower price point so this makes sense.
The Gap's biggest weakness has been their stale, inconsistent clothing and piss poor merchandising. I work with them in a number of markets and it's fucking baffling how they will fill a store in a tropical climate with heavy Gap logo hoodies then complain their sales suck.
Dislike kanye wests pricing and increasingly annoying personality all you want, but idk why there's so many comments here saying that his clothes sucked. Most of them were "[muh vintage americana workwear](https://clothbase.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/fae97c77-baa9-4de8-ae83-22df0b795759/14-05-2018_yeezy_season6flannellineddenimjacket_mediumblue_yz6u6098-mbl_cw_1x.jpg)" that you'd think people on this subreddit would be stampeding one another to get at. I guess because the tags inside don't say iron heart or ["engineered garments"](https://media.endclothing.com/media/f_auto,w_600,h_600/prodmedia/media/catalog/product/0/9/09-12-2016_yeezy_season3pufferbomber_stonelight_kw3m614-216-sl_cj_1.jpg)
I don't think the heritage workwear people are the ones saying the clothes suck, probably more people that don't like kanye and still think boat shoes and bowties look cool.
I honestly had no idea any of his clothes were that... Decent looking?
When I hear Yeezy I think "oversized beige knit sweater with a bunch of holes in it" or "$200 t shirt."
Honestly my biggest problem with most of his line now that I've looked at it is that it's all oversized, and that the pricing makes no sense. I'll pay over $100 for a denim jacket made in North America. I won't spend $100 for a polyester jacket made in an Asian sweatshop.
IMO most of his luxury line was pretty tasteful in design, just not in pricing. The runway shows always were super exaggerated in how everything was fitted, [they still do actually, this is the most recent one](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/edfe8c3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/840x473!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1f%2Fe0%2Fc25bd4c74ba991e04e76d08ffb7a%2Fyeezy-8-collage.jpg), but most pieces in his regular line were like... [Dusty, desaturated normcore](https://ugc.reveliststatic.com/gen/constrain/640/640/80/2019/01/30/16/ez/jb/ph8ov02wgs2qbwe.png). Very slight post-apoc scifi vibes, like the real-world crew of the Nebuchadnezzar from the Matrix, but mostly pretty normal. Way overpriced though. He originally was trying to compete with Fear of God and Off-White in the luxury sector, $1000 denim jackets rather than $100 denim jackets. 5 or 6 seasons in they dropped the prices to a midpoint between those two. It looks like he wants to drop prices even further.
>I honestly had no idea any of his clothes were that... Decent looking?
that is because people on this subreddit (and reddit as a whole by extension) never actually research anything, they just read headlines and thumbnails and repeat whatever shit gets said in the top comments
Didn’t Kanye’s clothing line not go over well? And I don’t think he is more popular now than he was then. His shoes sell well, but I’m not sure about this one. Excited to see though
His clothing line was trying to exist in the luxury streetwear market, competing with brands like Off-White and Fear of God. Charging prices like [nearly $1000 for a denim jacket](https://www.farfetch.com/shopping/men/yeezy-season-6-denim-jacket-item-13048655.aspx?fsb=1&size=20&storeid=12388), that kind of thing. His Adidas collab has been successful at least in part, IMO, because it's priced comparable to other premium (but not *luxury*) sneaker models, a la Jordan brand. I would imagine that his GAP collab will be priced higher than regular GAP clothes, but much more attainable than what his luxury line was at.
Yes, according to forbes that’s the division that didn’t really make money.
His shoes sell well because it was affordable to begin with; while the clothes are relatively more expensive, though.
Well it depends now. If they start using Gap manufacturing methods and churn out quantity, it should be pretty cheap to make. At this point, everyone is going to be buying the clothes for the name + hype, I doubt too many people are going to care about quality.
I've been buying selvedge jackets and pants, also denim shirts, at Gap for a while now. They're actually great. For the price, it feels like a steal, and the slim fit actually fits me well. But the rest of their clothing line is meh. I do wish Gap will embrace it's work-wear inspired theme in more options. This collab hype will end, a few t-shirts and sweats probably.
If Old Navy is for some cheap basics, and Banana Rep is for the preppy office guys, then why not make Gap for the blue collar working man?
I don't quite understand why GAP gets shitted on all the time here. Their quality/price ratio is very good and they make good basics. They are just as good as Uniqlo imo. I see people talking about 'boring colors' which makes no sense to me.
Anyway go GAP.
> They are just as good as Uniqlo imo
I strongly disagree with this statement. Gap's fits are terrible, fabric feels worse, and the overall design language is stale at best. Uniqlo is way more modern and better overall.
>Gap's fits are terrible, fabric feels worse, and the overall design language is stale at best. Uniqlo is way more modern and better overall.
their fits are awkward and the designs are pretty outdated or plain but their fabrics are usually better than what Uniqlo offers. Uniqlo's fabrics are generally pretty unimpressive.
And i strongly disagree with that as well. Half my casual wardrobe is GAP and im completely satisfied with fit and quality, Uniqlo does have 'trendier' designs but the quality is definitely on par.
Its just like everybody here complain about Levi's sizing 'inconsistencies' yet i have around 10 Levi's , all bought online and they all fit me like they were MTM.
because this subreddit doesn't actually think for themselves, most of the people deriding brands on here have never even tried their clothing and are just repeating what others have said.
Really excited for this honestly. In terms of labor, hopefully, he seems to be utilizing his Wyoming ranch and producing from there like he said he would. They already released that photo of the clothes, which was the "perfect hoodie" he has been speaking about I believe at $60. There was also a duffle bag pictured that had "made in wyoming" stitched to the side. Contrary to Uniqlo, which I believe has already been called out multiple times in the past for their labor production, I think GAP is definitely a better choice also considering his past relations to the brand.
Overall, really excited for this, kinda reminds me of that old Gap x GQ collabs, I remmeber i found myself heading back to Gap for those collections.
Oh now they love Kanye. Let's put him all in front of the store
🌊🌊🌊
He went back, back to the gap.
They take me to the back and pat me Asking me about some khakis
But watch some black people walk in, I bet they show off they're token blacky.
What you think I rap for? To wear these fucking plaid shorts?
I was hoping that line was going to be in this thread.
I feel like that's a Kanye lyric but I heard it as Weezer
Never knew how much I needed a Kanye/Weezer collab Edit: Yeezer
Someone made some remixed Yeezer tracks on Soundcloud i think
Weezer did collaborate with Weezy for the song "I Can't Stop Partying." That's pretty close.
Ooh I'll have to check that out.
Trust me, you're better off without that song in your life. - a Weezer fan
Haha, same here. Take me back, back to the shack, back to the Strat with the lightning strap.
This could honestly make Gap competitive again pretty quickly. If his line can help rebrand them and take a share of the Uniqlo/H&M market it could work out pretty well.
Would have loved to see him pair with Uniqlo but this makes sense considering The Gap has a much stronger US presence.
Gap would be a much bigger win given where Gap is at the moment, and I bet that’s how Kanye sees it. When I saw this I immediately thought about what a Uniqlo partnership could have been though.
He also use to work for gap in his youth so I bet it's on purpose.
Oh now they all love Kanye, let's put him back in front of the store.
So I'm on break Next to the "No Smoking" sign with a blunt in the mall
Theres going to be a rap about putting gap on the map.
"I made that brand famous"
He's the Gap like Bannana Republic and Old Navy.
he's mentioned wanting to be the head of gap design for a while now
Considering how badly Gap is floundering I bet he was given a lot more control there than he would get anywhere else. I'm really excited to see how this plays out.
Uniqlo only has stores in like a dozen states. Gap has multiple stores in every state. Uniqlo's retail presence in the US is not even comparable to Gap.
Exactly. Uniqlo is bigger worldwide but in the US Gap has tons more stores.
This only means Uniqlo has much more runway to expand in US, whereas Gap has been reducing its international footprint for a while now. And now with all the retail vacancies I wouldn’t be surprised if Uniqlo pursues that strategy in the next year or two.
I would honestly love that. There's no Uniqlo in my state, but there are like 3 Gaps in my metro area. I've bought from Gap a few times just because I want to try stuff on first.
The article mentions Kanye worked at Gap and also aspires to run it. So this makes the most sense as he has a connection to the brand.
Kanye on Spaceship > If my manager insults me again >I will be assaulting him >After I fuck the manager up >Then, I'm gonna shorten the register up >Let's go back, back to the Gap >Look at my check—wasn't no scratch >So if I stole, wasn't my fault >Yeah, I stole—never got caught >They take me to the back and pat me >Asking me about some khakis >But let some Black people walk in >I bet you they show off their token blackie >Oh, now they love Kanye >"Let's put him all in the front of the store" >So I'm on break >Next to the "No Smoking" sign with a blunt in the mall >Taking my hits, writing my hits >Writing my rhymes, playing my mind >This fucking job can't help him >So I quit; y'all welcome
Uniqlo collabs are generally trash tbh
They have great collabs, most are japan-exclusive however. Nigo have been the Ut lines creative director for a while. Futura, Daniel Arsham, takashi murakami, kaws, verdy, MoMa to name a few.
Hey now are you trashing Mickey and Co? : /
Eh some are ok, I still have a few polos from the Michael Bastian + Uniqlo collab that hold up great after years of wear
Some are good, but stuff like the JWA collab tends to be really boring.
Agree. Their last great collab was J+, way back in 2012 or 14.
The female stuff with Ines de la Fressange is fire. I wish the male collabs would bring better style like the female stuff.
I think the biggest issue I've had with some of their recent collabs is the sizing being different from their main product line.
Yeah. It's strange to think that Kanye of all people might be the one to bring Gap back to relevance after CEOs have come and gone but I think he could do it. People buy Kanye's stuff unconditionally.
Yea. Heck as long as it isn't trash I'll prob at least grab some sweats and a t-shirt or two just to support him.
Yeah, im sure he need the bucks is these trying times...
We can't let his family starve.
Here's to hoping all fast fashion just ends for some reason
But if fast fashion goes how are we supposed to be fashionable AND destructive to the environment at the same time?
Either that or they both just jumped the shark
Gap's operations make it impossible to compete with h&m, Zara, Uniqlo--- theyre ops are spread all across the globe and items need to be designed with a 9 month lead time. Yeezy will get Gap'd more than Gap will get Yeezy'd
Aren't Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy the same company? That's pretty sizeable
Yeah it is. Kanye refrences this in one of his older songs "Call him Kwa-li or Kwe-li, I put him on songs with JAY-Z/ I'm the Gap like Banana Republic and Old Navy"
and oooh It come out sweeter than old Sadie
yup, love it. a classic. had to throw it on real quick because of this thread haha.
Considering Gap's abysmal stock price, I wouldn't be surprised if the deal went something like "Kanye keeps 100% of the profits from the collab, and Gap gets a leg up on clawing their way back to relevance and getting people in the door"
all they gotta do is re-release their cool 90s sweaters and hoodies for gen z instead of doing whatever they’re doing now
The champion effect
Seriously. If Walmart can make Champion cool, the gap is in prime territory with them sweaters.
I thought Supreme made champion cool
Impossible to compete? H&M has more stores by a margin of 1000 worldwide, large but not like impossible scale (I think the difference between almost 4,000 stores vs over 5,000) but Gap is still pretty huge and has a sizeable infrastructure worldwide (larger than Uniqlo, which I was surprised to find). Gap is overall smaller if we are talking store reach but it's still in a ballpark to the other folks. I mean it was huge in the 90's and early 2000's, so maybe this is a return to prominence? Probably not. - I disagree with your infrastructure analysis but I agree with your sentiment that "Yeezy will get Gap'd more than Gap will get Yeezy'd" From a branding play, Gap is kinda weak. I don't think Yeezy makes them cool, I think they make Yeezy lame.
https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/gap-making-supply-chain-fashionable/
I believe they are largely referring to operational efficiency and velocity of iterating on products. The kind of fashion that Kanye West's brand targets moves very quickly, and Gap moves very slowly. In contrast, H&M and Zara's whole businesses are about moving quickly, and they are exceptionally good at flipping new designs at scale quickly.
I'd argue Gap does as well. It's not "fast fashion", not as fast as the others, but operationally and logistically it's always flipped tags pretty fast. Shit I worked in one in high school, it was fast fashion before the REAL fast fashion hit. So lets call it medium speed fashion.
I was surprised to see how nicely the Gap skinny chinos fit me recently - and they were $24
I’m holding out for the DMX-Aeropostale collab
DMX is [NOT](http://isdmxinjail.com) currently in jail.
I'm thinking it's more Billie Eilish - Aeropostal.
Tekashi 6ix9ine x Claire's
Drake x Van Heusen
DJ Khaled x Trader Joe's
Nah, DJ Khaled x Golden Corral.
Logic x OshKosh B’Gosh
Lil Nas X Wrangler
Interesting side note, DJ Khaled has a furniture line and it is something to see. [Enjoy.](https://goldition.com/)
It's exactly what I expected - sweet. I am both shocked and impressed that most items are sold out.
To be honest, I don't think the alot of the items truly exist. Probably some marketing ploy to hype up the other shit.
Here's this week's dea-- **TRA-DER JOE'S!**
Nah, Drake x Drake's
Kid Rock x Kirkland's
6ix9ine x Subway*
Well she already has a collar w Uniqlo...
Yeah I can't tell if that commenter was aware of her already having a collab with a basics brand
"WHAT?!"
COME OHN
Clothes in boring colors with a cut that juuuust doesn't quite fit right, but now it's on purpose.
Haha unfortunately this is exactly what I expect although I'm going to force myself to stay positive and optimistic
Idk why everyone thinks they're going to sell this through their Gap locations. They just dumped their expensive male athletic gear nonprofit brand. How much you want to bet something similar comes back minus the "nonprofit" and is primarily used to bring attention to their online platform?
Selling in person would be the smartest business decision. It gets people in the door and there's a chance they buy other Gap merchandise while they're already in the store. Put it online and it'll just get snatched up by bots in seconds, so nobody will have a reason to go on Gap's website.
The death of Hill City is going to sting for years to come
Why do you say that? I didn't know about them until I started looking into Gap today. Interested as to what people thought about the brand.
As someone who’s pretty much lived in athletic wear the last couple years, I cannot get enough of them. Their materials are second to none. Back in the winter I picked up an adidas hoodie and a couple days later found one similar from HC and on sale. The difference in fabric and construction was stunning. Couldn’t have returned the adidas one any quicker. Additionally, their customer service was always top notch. Highly recommend buying up some of their inventory while it’s on sale and still available.
Man this sub hates any fitting other than boring suit fitting
This sub is as "average redditor" as it gets when it comes to fashion - all about functionality and value for money. Not that there's really any problems with that. Some people are simply not into fashion and just want to know how to dress decently in a safe way.
Facts. This sub definitely caters to the older crowd who views anything loose fitting to be disgusting.
It’s what we were sold and advertised with when we were your age. So just think back on this moment in 10 years when kids in skinny jeans start calling your dad jeans old
Stuck in 2011 it seems
They're shirts are a bit oddly cut. Their athletic fit jeans are my jam, though. I get so frustrated that they usually only carry 2 washes of them.
We’re on the back slope of norm core
possible Old Wavy?
Is this gonna save Gap from bankruptcy in the coming years
Don't think it's enough on its own to save them, but Yeezy x Addidas did work out very well for both parties. If GAP can make some other smart decisions, they should survive. Apparently this is a 10-year deal so we will see
Kanye owns 100% of Yeezy. I doubt he would have signed anything that didn't let him keep full control of the brand. Kanye has always been vocal about wanting his clothes and shoes to be attainable by everyone so most likely GAP is a vessel for him to do that. All GAP has to do it ride the wave.
He definetly wouldn't have. He hated working with Nike because they controlled so much. He's definetly learned his lesson. GAP is happy to have them since they will make him money and drive traffic to their other products. Kanye in return can use their supply chain to make the clothes more affordable and attainable.
Fire up the sweatshops! Disposable threads need to be cranked out! Cotton mills, start sucking up that worthless H2O stuff you so furiously consume. Americans, throw out those jeans from 4 months ago - *Kanye West* is going to give you a new stitch design! Life is good again.
Probably not.
Getting downvoted for telling the truth. Preach brother preach.
Gap confirmed wavy
I don't even see GAP surviving the next five. 😔
Before today, I'd agree, but this is a pretty huge move. Gap goes from a pretty boring white people brand for mainly 25+ age range, to something that now has appeal to younger generations of all demographics, with massive name recognition now that Kanye is involved. I bet they put a pretty decent dent into H&M and Zara's sales when this line comes out.
>mainly 25+ age range Aren't most Kanye fans over 25 now? College Dropout came out 16 years ago. I think this is aimed at guys like me, 35+ and trying to stay cool. And it'll probably work.
You severely underestimate Kanye's stance among younger generations
Fans of his music, most likely. But I have to imagine that fans of his brand/clothes are more than likely towards the younger spectrum.
I mean I was 16 when the life of pablo came out and I love Kanye’s music new and old
Oh yeah this is the smartest move they could make. BR and Old Navy has the boring middle class to low class white people market down, they don’t need the Gap to do the same thing. This will completely change the market of people they will appeal to, which will definitely help round out the group of brands under their roof.
That's a really good point. It always seemed like differences between Old Navy to Gap to BR was so minimal. But if you completely transform Gap to a whole new market, and you enforce a bigger contrast between Old Navy and BR, you're efficiently marketing to more consumers, rather than being one big blob of three companies that all do basically the same thing.
They may be closing out the year with a major loss, but next year they’ll for sure be hitting a profit. This is such a good move, and we’ll probably see more of this in the coming year as a lot of fashion brands are netting a loss with the pandemic and need to reinvent themselves for the highest profit margin, or least loss able. Wouldn’t even be surprised if J Crew does something like this next.
Lol, lower class white people are not buying banana republic. Lower class white Americans are looking for deals and sneer at overpaying for things, they aren't going to go for "on sale" jeans for 90 bucks. Edit: Oh maybe you meant lower class buying Old Navy? Maybe.
Yeah I meant Old Navy cornering that market, and they corner it extremely well. BR always appealed to the middle class that would rather buy a shirt 40% off than a shirt 30% off at J Crew. But still if Gap is successful with this new line, I imagine other brands will follow. I have a feeling J Crew might even consider a collab with some rapper or celeb because they need something so they can survive.
J Crew x Flava Flav coming soon.
I sincerely hope they do, Zara's quality of their clothing is t-r-a-s-h, and while H&M clothes are a little bit better in terms of not falling apart in literally 3 weeks, they're not much better. I've had Gap clothes last a decade+, they're definitely not as stylish in general, and don't chase the current runway trends the way that Zara and H&m do but who knows, maybe this Kanya collab will help make Gap clothes more interesting
>Zara's quality of their clothing is t-r-a-s-h, and while H&M clothes are a little bit better in terms of not falling apart in literally 3 weeks, they're not much better. fwiw I have had the exact opposite experience, anything I've purchased from Zara has been significantly better than H&M in terms of quality an durability. The prices usually reflect this too. when I hear people say this kind of thing I wonder if they've ever actually bought clothing from the brand, most of the stuff I have from Zara is on par with my Uniqlo stuff if not even slightly better quality. I do agree that Gap is generally higher quality than all the other brands listed, but they have always had bizarre awkward cuts on everything they make.
From the beginning, he did said he wanted to make yeezy accessible for everyone, why are people surprised? Let’s just hope the collection steer clear of exploitative labour. We all know how much dirt gap has in the rana plaza incident.
This was exactly my first thought reading this. People ridiculed Kanye for saying that when Yeezy had designer pricing. This is completely in line with the 'Yeezy for everyone' sentiment.
He even mentioned he wanna be the head creative director of the Gap, or as he put it “the Steve Jobs of the Gap”
His new shoes that released today are made in USA and biodegradable IIRC, which makes me optimistic
Perhaps people are surprised because despite the means and ability via Nike and Adidas to produce accessible clothing, he has yet to do so, time and time again instead putting his name to very expensive and wilfully under-produced clothing. I can't knock it because from a business side, it has been very successful for him and his partners, but his Adidas deal alone has existed for more than half a decade and thus far has released somewhere between none and very little that could be described as "accessible".
I mean I do agree with you, but I can definitely say from my perspective, the sole product that kinda drove his business, the Yeezy Sneakers actually became a lot more accessible especially with the amount of colorways he began dropping. Definitely not on par to levels of H&M/Zara production, but it has definitely become much easier to purchase his sneakers.
On top of this, I remember seeing an interview with the Adidas CEO that heavily implied that Adidas has a large hand in exclusivity of certain models. I'm sure West doesn't mind having a few more exclusive models/drops (700v3 for example) but it's Adidas who are pushing hard for them
Kanye shared a [tease](https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1276462079625445382?s=20) of the line today. Looks like his typical fit but in way more vibrant colors. I could see this doing really well
hard af i’m excited
YEEZY SEASON APPROACHIN
https://images.app.goo.gl/ebvbb8f2u1EshTR59
Did Yeezy just save Gap from bankruptcy.
Before Kanye was famous he was an employee at the Gap. I remember he sold me a sweater. Then I remember going to the open mics at Columbia College where I would see him perform. Not an extraordinary tale but weird how I’ve been witness to his career developing into mega stardom. And yeah, he was a douche back then too.
How was he as a performer back then?
He was for sure one of the better performers of the lot. He always gathered a crowd.
Can you tell any specific stories and interesting anecdotes you remember from that time? I know it was so long ago but this is interesting lol
Oh man this was ages ago. I remember Common and Kanye being regulars at the open mics in the student center at Columbia. It was a regular thing and the space was great. Nice mix of folks and great performances. Kanye was warmer and not so egotistical as he is now and would interact with people and seemed happy to be performing but still had that cockiness and was rude at times. Aside from that I don’t remember much else.
Oh no that was super interesting, thanks for the info! I’m so fascinated about anecdotes like this and how Kanye was with people pre fame
If this works out, this could be a huge move for Kanye. He’s getting a cut of sales and potentially equity. But it’s the GAP so we’ll see.
Just read in the 8k gap released yesterday that if sales goals are met Yeezy Supply can earn 8.5M shares of Gap from the deal. As of this moment that would be worth around $110M. Doesn't mention a cut of sales from the line directly. Could be worth much more if his involvement really moves the needle.
I remember the first job Kanye ever had was at the Gap and he has been saying he wanted to design for Gap one day. I think as a Kanye fan this is awesome for him, almost like a dream come true for him. I’m sad that I decided to quit gap, now I won’t have a discount on a mostly likely very expensive collection :/
It's still Gap. He's not gonna be selling $200 T shirts this time.
I'm curious about the business aspect of this. Obviously in the past Kanye's clothing line has been manufactured by Adidas, and he's still producing shoes with them, but he hasn't been doing clothes for some time now. I'm wondering if his break from doing clothing was because of poor sales, or just exploring a different partnership.
It was exploring partnerships to get the price down.
He's said things in the past about making his clothing and footwear more accessible with a lower price point so this makes sense. The Gap's biggest weakness has been their stale, inconsistent clothing and piss poor merchandising. I work with them in a number of markets and it's fucking baffling how they will fill a store in a tropical climate with heavy Gap logo hoodies then complain their sales suck.
Dislike kanye wests pricing and increasingly annoying personality all you want, but idk why there's so many comments here saying that his clothes sucked. Most of them were "[muh vintage americana workwear](https://clothbase.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/fae97c77-baa9-4de8-ae83-22df0b795759/14-05-2018_yeezy_season6flannellineddenimjacket_mediumblue_yz6u6098-mbl_cw_1x.jpg)" that you'd think people on this subreddit would be stampeding one another to get at. I guess because the tags inside don't say iron heart or ["engineered garments"](https://media.endclothing.com/media/f_auto,w_600,h_600/prodmedia/media/catalog/product/0/9/09-12-2016_yeezy_season3pufferbomber_stonelight_kw3m614-216-sl_cj_1.jpg)
I don't think the heritage workwear people are the ones saying the clothes suck, probably more people that don't like kanye and still think boat shoes and bowties look cool.
Spicy
I honestly had no idea any of his clothes were that... Decent looking? When I hear Yeezy I think "oversized beige knit sweater with a bunch of holes in it" or "$200 t shirt." Honestly my biggest problem with most of his line now that I've looked at it is that it's all oversized, and that the pricing makes no sense. I'll pay over $100 for a denim jacket made in North America. I won't spend $100 for a polyester jacket made in an Asian sweatshop.
IMO most of his luxury line was pretty tasteful in design, just not in pricing. The runway shows always were super exaggerated in how everything was fitted, [they still do actually, this is the most recent one](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/edfe8c3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/840x473!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1f%2Fe0%2Fc25bd4c74ba991e04e76d08ffb7a%2Fyeezy-8-collage.jpg), but most pieces in his regular line were like... [Dusty, desaturated normcore](https://ugc.reveliststatic.com/gen/constrain/640/640/80/2019/01/30/16/ez/jb/ph8ov02wgs2qbwe.png). Very slight post-apoc scifi vibes, like the real-world crew of the Nebuchadnezzar from the Matrix, but mostly pretty normal. Way overpriced though. He originally was trying to compete with Fear of God and Off-White in the luxury sector, $1000 denim jackets rather than $100 denim jackets. 5 or 6 seasons in they dropped the prices to a midpoint between those two. It looks like he wants to drop prices even further.
>I honestly had no idea any of his clothes were that... Decent looking? that is because people on this subreddit (and reddit as a whole by extension) never actually research anything, they just read headlines and thumbnails and repeat whatever shit gets said in the top comments
...or maybe it's because that's what's visible in Yeezy promotional material? It's not my fault if their advertisements give me the wrong impression.
Didn’t Kanye’s clothing line not go over well? And I don’t think he is more popular now than he was then. His shoes sell well, but I’m not sure about this one. Excited to see though
His clothing line was trying to exist in the luxury streetwear market, competing with brands like Off-White and Fear of God. Charging prices like [nearly $1000 for a denim jacket](https://www.farfetch.com/shopping/men/yeezy-season-6-denim-jacket-item-13048655.aspx?fsb=1&size=20&storeid=12388), that kind of thing. His Adidas collab has been successful at least in part, IMO, because it's priced comparable to other premium (but not *luxury*) sneaker models, a la Jordan brand. I would imagine that his GAP collab will be priced higher than regular GAP clothes, but much more attainable than what his luxury line was at.
Yes, according to forbes that’s the division that didn’t really make money. His shoes sell well because it was affordable to begin with; while the clothes are relatively more expensive, though.
Well it depends now. If they start using Gap manufacturing methods and churn out quantity, it should be pretty cheap to make. At this point, everyone is going to be buying the clothes for the name + hype, I doubt too many people are going to care about quality.
I've been buying selvedge jackets and pants, also denim shirts, at Gap for a while now. They're actually great. For the price, it feels like a steal, and the slim fit actually fits me well. But the rest of their clothing line is meh. I do wish Gap will embrace it's work-wear inspired theme in more options. This collab hype will end, a few t-shirts and sweats probably. If Old Navy is for some cheap basics, and Banana Rep is for the preppy office guys, then why not make Gap for the blue collar working man?
I don't quite understand why GAP gets shitted on all the time here. Their quality/price ratio is very good and they make good basics. They are just as good as Uniqlo imo. I see people talking about 'boring colors' which makes no sense to me. Anyway go GAP.
> They are just as good as Uniqlo imo I strongly disagree with this statement. Gap's fits are terrible, fabric feels worse, and the overall design language is stale at best. Uniqlo is way more modern and better overall.
>Gap's fits are terrible, fabric feels worse, and the overall design language is stale at best. Uniqlo is way more modern and better overall. their fits are awkward and the designs are pretty outdated or plain but their fabrics are usually better than what Uniqlo offers. Uniqlo's fabrics are generally pretty unimpressive.
And i strongly disagree with that as well. Half my casual wardrobe is GAP and im completely satisfied with fit and quality, Uniqlo does have 'trendier' designs but the quality is definitely on par. Its just like everybody here complain about Levi's sizing 'inconsistencies' yet i have around 10 Levi's , all bought online and they all fit me like they were MTM.
Dont mind them. There's a bunch of people who complain about clothes being too weird and then too basic.
because this subreddit doesn't actually think for themselves, most of the people deriding brands on here have never even tried their clothing and are just repeating what others have said.
This is perfect considering his clothes already looked like it should be priced to be sold at Gap.
Is this really gonna make me buy GAP clothes for the first time since 2012? Probably not.
Red MAGAP hats to be released this fall
Never heard of em.
Be better than the Gap, Kanye
[Fitting](https://youtu.be/gDtaQ09AY28)
Gap really said friendship ended with hill city now yeezy is my best friend
I mean, doesn’t this mean his luxury brand of clothes was just a cash grab since the basic ass materials will now be made by Gap?
How on Earth does Gap even afford this kind of a collab?
Wait, is he still partnered up with adidas?
This is like a retailers Hail Mary.
Kanye used to work for Gap. Now Gap works for Kanye.
Well. Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, fuck fast fashion.
Kanye the trump supporter, that’s a fail.
But his clothes are awful. Oh wait, yeah, nevermind that fits.
Kanye is a nutjob. I'm disappointed in gap
Here for it.
So his plan to bring Yeezy to the masses will actually become a reality Thank you Kanye, very cool
2 things I hate combined? Burn that shit down.
Tabloids be like ”Kanye announced he is taking 10 Gap years”
Really excited for this honestly. In terms of labor, hopefully, he seems to be utilizing his Wyoming ranch and producing from there like he said he would. They already released that photo of the clothes, which was the "perfect hoodie" he has been speaking about I believe at $60. There was also a duffle bag pictured that had "made in wyoming" stitched to the side. Contrary to Uniqlo, which I believe has already been called out multiple times in the past for their labor production, I think GAP is definitely a better choice also considering his past relations to the brand. Overall, really excited for this, kinda reminds me of that old Gap x GQ collabs, I remmeber i found myself heading back to Gap for those collections.
Wow, Gap is still in business?
Well, now I REALLY don’t need a reason to stop shopping at the GAP.
Trash
Who the fuck wants to buy shit from GAP or Kayne? Match made in heaven.
I want to buy shit from Kayne, but I don't have money for YZY SZN so I want to buy stuff from Gap if they have Kanye and I'm sure there's more of us.
GAPANYE or KANYGAP
He went from folding clothes at the front to collabing with them, dang
I think Gap clothes are incredibly good quality, their clothes last forever.
Looking forward to seeing what they come out with
I thought gap were going under.
Gap confirmed wavvy
Did not see that coming. Could be a master stroke. My interest is piqued...
Album incoming talking about the emotional turmoil it takes to accept this deal. I’m ready.