The master of designer t-shirts departs. . the struggling proprietor of cheap clothing?
“To any outside non-expert in terms of market analysis, all components of the deal seem volatile. So why did fashion’s hottest, most profitable brand decide to get involved?”
If there’s one thing that’s been on any fashion inclined mind this past week, it’s been the long awaited arrival of the GAP x Yeezy 'Engineered by Balenciaga’ physical garments in store. Two years ago, GAP and Ye announced the beginning of a ten year collaboration between the Artist/Designer/General pop culture wild card and the struggling suburban basics conglomerate with a very generously hopeful projected goal of Ye’s influence and design to bring in $1 billion in additional sales. But what does that collaboration actually look like between a large company that struggles to keep pace with current fashions and a famously erratic megastar– once whose decades-long career is marked by major delays and unresponsiveness going back, well, decades.
Keeping in mind GAP’s relative lack of popularity within the overall capital F ‘Fashion’ community, any luxury collaborator bold enough to step up to the helm also must face the parent company’s apparent lack of internal organization when it comes to corporate leadership (three CEOs in the last ten years), and marketing attempts that, in the public’s eye, have left scorched trails of earth behind them, snubbing beloved brands such as Telfar, due to miscommunications and the seemingly eternal carousel of the company’s top executives amidst rapidly falling profits. To any outside non-expert in terms of market analysis, all components of the deal seem volatile. So why did fashion’s hottest, most profitable brand decide to get involved?
Before the announcement that Demna was stepping in to ‘engineer’ the collaboration in February earlier this year, the frequently talked about GAP x Yeezy line had only produced two garments. Despite limited stock and the five-month arrival time, the blue puffer coat sparked plenty of hype within the fashion community. At the least, the two initial garments generated interest in what was coming next, and at most Drop 2, the black t-shirt, broke the single day online sales record for the conglomerate, according to the New York Times. Though the quoted $14 million in sales from Drop 2 pale in comparison to Ye’s projected hype-to-business-conversion.
When Demna announced the beginning of this collaboration, the project seemed as if it could mold a new way for brands to converge resources and creativity, especially between two long term collaborators and friends such as Demna and Ye, and two extremely polar opposite mega-companies such as GAP and Balenciaga. Soon after this concept of ‘engineering’ was announced, the line became available for sale at online retailers for pre-order. The collection advertised t-shirts for $140 as well as denim pieces for $400; a higher price point than the average GAP consumer but significantly lower than Balenciaga’s runway t-shirts which can, from the current season, run retail at around $700. Beyond a long-term personal relationship between Ye and Demna, Balenciaga’s addition to the project brings name-recognition, material quality, manufacturing advice, and a more streamlined design process–all to GAP (and Kanye’s general design disorganization).
‘The project seemed as if it could mold a new way for brands to converge resources and creativity, especially between a two long term collaborators and friends such a Demna and Ye, and two extremely polar opposite mega-companies such as GAP and Balenciaga.’
After months of availability for online purchase, the first Yeezy Engineered by Balenciaga GAP store takeover launched this week in Times Square, NYC, with other major cities across the country following suit. While customers waited in line in Times Square, Ye and Demna dropped a video game that included digital renderings of the clothes available for sale, a definite nod to Demna’s past use of both the metaverse and Times Square media space in his Balenciaga x Fortnite collaboration. Both in store in NYC and across other cities such as LA bins and dumpsters were set up for customers to ‘dig’ through in replacement of the traditional retail experience. Regardless of the intended concept– the NYC store resembled both the bins at Goodwill and the remnants of a savage designer sample sale.
Initial numbers from the success of this first physical drop have yet to be released, but amongst the continuous roll out, Demna has already announced his departure from the collaboration. In speaking with the New York Times, Demna stated that this was his plan, and challenge, all along– ‘to give him a starting point.’ The Balenciaga creative director believes that Ye’s design potential is boundless and that this project has a ways to go, he merely served as a helping hand for his friend. Perhaps it was not so much a favor to a company that has already recorded $162 million in net losses this year.
GAP has continued to describe its collaborative contract with Ye as ‘fluid’. No information regarding creative process nor next collections have been shared. The question remains: between Ye’s creative fanaticism and a progressively flailing parent company, can this specific arrangement continue? It seems doubtful that Balenciaga or Ye could single handedly save GAP, and along with it Banana Republic, Athletica, and Old Navy. Demna certainly threw time, money, and resources towards being a stepping stone for this model of collaboration; however, it also seems highly doubtful that Ye could realistically sustain a long-term business partnership which, with a normal production schedule, does not allow for so many long-winded creative tangents. What comes next after this massive roll out, is yet to be seen.
And with that, thank you for subscribing to Flavorfull! All past newsletters are available on the website archives. If you would like to submit a question for an upcoming issue, feel free to reply directly to this email!