Ye Bets His Comeback on a Store Nobody Can Boycott Through a Middleman

Yeezy staged "Season 01" on November 4 in Los Angeles, its first runway show since the Paris collection that ended in a white-supremacist slogan on a T-shirt and a wave of antisemitic remarks from Ye that cost the brand its biggest partner. The show doubled as the opening of Yeezy's first physical store, at a single address on Beverly Boulevard, a much smaller stage than the Adidas-backed arenas the brand used to fill.

The comeback has been gradual by design. Adidas cut Ye loose in October 2022, and Gap and Balenciaga followed. In January of this year, Ye published a full-page open letter in The Wall Street Journal disavowing antisemitism and apologizing to the Black and Jewish communities he had targeted. Yeezy relaunched its online store with basic clothing soon after, then struck a distribution deal with JD Sports in August to get its sneakers back on shelves it does not own and cannot control.

A storefront with his own name on the lease is the next, more personal step. There is no retailer to answer to and no corporate partner who can cut ties overnight. Whether shoppers are ready to walk back in with him is a separate question from whether he can open the door.

Source: nss magazine

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →