Former J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, who also led Gap through throughout the ’80s and ’90s has weighed in on Kanye West‘s Yeezy partnership with the San Francisco-base chain and it’s not positive.
Explaining he told West not to take the job in the first place, Drexler told Yahoo Finance Live, “I probably shouldn’t say this but I told him he shouldn’t do the deal because it doesn’t make any sense in my opinion.”
Now the CEO of Alex Mill, a Gap-esque retailer founded by his son Alexander Miler, in the same exchange the 76-year-old Drexler also claimed to have information on sales figures for Gap and Yeezy’s debut launch, a bright blue puffer jacket. Drexler noted, “So, I know the jacket sold out, no zipper, no nothing. They did $7 million on the jacket overnight. He’s a smart guy but he shouldn’t have done it. And I don’t think they should have done it, either, and hope my friend [head of Gap global] Mark [Breitbard] isn’t mad at me.”
Whether or not it colors his opinions on the chain currently, it’s known that Drexler’s near 20-year relationship with Gap didn’t end well. Following a period of poor sales and ballooning debt, in May 2002 Drexler was fired by Gap founder Donald Fisher, whose family at the time owned one third of the company’s stock. Drexler was able to negotiate being kept on until a successor was appointment and was announced as retiring.
Gaps and Yeezy’s partnership was announced by CEO Sonia Syngal in June 2020. Gap shares jumped up on the news and have more than doubled since West came aboard the chain.
Gap and Yeezy launched the puffer jacket Drexler referenced on June 8th, West’s 44th birthday. Priced at $200, the puffer was available to purchase on gap.com for several days after the launch date. Subsequently, a black version of the jacket was made available for European and Japanese shoppers.
