Kanye West’s lawyers sent a letter to Gap Inc on Thursday announcing he was ending his 10-year partnership
The corporation breached its contract with the rapper by not releasing clothes and opening retail stores.
The gap was supposed to sell 40% of the Yeezy Gap clothing line in brick-and-mortar stores in 2021 and open five Yeezy stores by 2023, but it has yet to open a store.
The Gap arrangement was set to expire in 2030, and a partnership with Adidas, in which the company produced and sold Yeezy sneakers, was set to expire in 2026.
Gap CEO Mark Breitbard told staff in an email, "We are deciding to wind down the partnership" with West, noting that "how we work together to accomplish this vision is not aligned."
According to the Journal, the company planned to release new Yeezy Gap products in the fall and around the holidays. West owns Yeezy and receives royalties and shares from Gap sales.
West, who officially changed his name to Ye, told he would discontinue his deals with Gap and Adidas when they expired. He said in an Instagram video last week the company copied his design
West is worth $2 billion. He became a billionaire for the first time in 2020. West's Yeezy Gap line reportedly sold $1 billion in its first year, led by the Yeezy Gap Engineered By Balenciaga line.
"You have to actually let me be Ye and do what I'm thinking, or I'll do it elsewhere," West told Adidas executives in a video released on social media in August.