The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
A year after the partnership was first announced, Gap launched the first product in its collaboration with Kanye West’s Yeezy brand. The bright blue puffer jacket made from recycled nylon is available for US customers to pre-order for $200 on the Gap website. Orders will ship in the autumn.
The launch was timed to coincide with West’s birthday and was accompanied by a flurry of marketing. West was spotted in the jacket last week, prompting speculation about what was to come. Its image has been projected onto buildings in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
The collaboration is a big bet for Gap, which is counting on the Kanye West partnership to revive flagging sales. The mall brand has grappled with store closures, mass layoffs and furloughs, rent disputes and consumer shifts to online retailers over the course of the pandemic, but it also faced declining sales and deep discounting long before 2020.
According to a Bloomberg report earlier this year, Gap expects its Yeezy line to top $150 million in revenue in 2022, its first full year of operation, with a view to becoming a billion-dollar brand within the next eight years.
But the tie-up between Yeezy and Gap has at times been uncertain, with the collection’s launch date up in the air as recently as last month and West demanding a seat on Gap’s board of directors in September last year.
Still Gap is hoping to replicate the success of Yeezy’s long-standing partnership with Adidas. Sales of Yeezy sneakers brought in nearly $1.7 billion in annual revenue in 2020, up 31 percent from a year earlier.
BoF Careers provides essential sector insights for fashion professionals in retail this month, to help you decode fashion’s retail landscape.
Aviator Nation’s pricey sweatpants and cashmeres had a cult following before they were swept up in the “dopamine dressing” phenomenon. Now, founder Paige Mycoskie – still the brand’s only shareholder – is ready to see just how big her vision for California surfer cool can get.
Small stores can remain competitive by scaling their private labels, testing new store concepts, and offering brands consumers can’t find on Farfetch or in Selfridges.
Investing in a VIP resale platform is another play from the e-commerce pioneer to win over luxury buyers and sellers.