Mickey Drexler, the former CEO of Gap, has said the clothing giant should not have collaborated with Kanye West because he is “not a corporate person”.
The 10-year Yeezy Gap partnership was announced in June and has produced three puffer jackets, most recently a red one, a version of which West wore at the pre-release listening party for his forthcoming album, Donda.
Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP
Drexler, who ran Gap between 1983 and 2002, said last week that, despite West’s previous work with Adidas, the collaboration was a bad idea. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but I told [West] he shouldn’t do the deal because it doesn’t make any sense,” Drexler told Yahoo Finance Live.
“I have a lot of friends at Gap still, but it doesn’t work for someone like Kanye. He is not a corporate person and Gap is a big corporation … He is a smart guy, but he shouldn’t have done it. And I don’t think they should done it, either.”
Drexler revealed that the release of the first, blue puffer jacket made the company $7m (£5m) overnight, while shares in Gap jumped 42% after the partnership was announced. The black Yeezy Gap jacket is being resold on sites such as Stock X for about £500.
In June, Gap confirmed plans to close all 81 of its physical shops in the UK and Ireland.
