Creative force Kanye West has come along way since pleading with Mark Zuckerberg to help him erase $53 million in debt just three years ago. According to Forbes, West is now the No. 3 earner on its Celebrity 100 list with a pretax annual income of $150 million, a number his team says is higher when it includes Yeezy apparel sales.
Much of his wealth is attributed to the success of his Yeezy brand, which is still owned 100 percent by West, who first launched the brand with a series of collaborations with Nike in 2009.
Now produced in partnership with Adidas since 2013, the brand is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales in 2019 and is still growing. The number is incredible especially in comparison to Nike’s Jordan brand, which was launched in 1984 and does approximately $3 billion in sales.
West’s deal with Adidas is also much better than Jordan’s with Nike. The 42-year-old, married father of four receives a 15 percent royalty on Yeezy wholesale sales versus Michael Jordan who receives approximately 5 percent royalties and doesn’t own the brand.
According to Forbes, West is on track to soon join Jordan, his sister-in-law Kylie Jenner and fellow mogul Jay-Z in becoming a billionaire, a status West told the magazine he’s already achieve.
Reflecting on the future of Yeezy, West says, “We’ve only experienced a small glimmer of light.”
Check out a video capturing some of West’s exchange with Forbes below.
