Kanye West Talks Gap, Adidas, Kim Kardashian and Wellness on New Alo Yoga Podcast
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Kanye West took a moment to be mindful on Alo Yoga’s new podcast last Thursday — the same day he ended his deal with Gap Inc.
Never one to shy away from controversial topics, the artist, who goes by Ye, spoke openly about his troubled relationship with the retailer during the inaugural episode of Alo Yoga’s new podcast “Alo Mind Full.”
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“The whole reason why I went to Gap is [because] every step of the way in my career, you know, there was something in the way of my career that was like all the price point is here, or I can only get this much,” West told Alo Yoga cofounder and co-chief executive officer Danny Harris, alongside podcast host Alyson Wilson. “So I went to Gap and was like, ‘OK, this is it.’ And they did the actual thing. They took the design that I did with Demna from Balenciaga and they made a $19 version of the T-shirt. They did the dream, but just, without Steve. They did the dream without Ye. But they still want to, like, do it with that, kinda, background and all these….Mark these words of this interview, I’m gonna run s–t. I’m gonna run s–t, right? You’re no longer the executive that can talk to me, like, I’m that me. I don’t work for you no more.
“But I honestly believe that Gap and Adidas are part of a bigger plan to marginalize American companies and American industry, which is the opposite of what Danny [Harris] is doing,” West continued. “I’m a bit of a Robin Hood in a way. Yeah, people can go and say this, like, multibillionaire spent $4 million on Balenciaga in one year. But did I bring the designs back down to earth? As much as I could. Because Gap didn’t take it to $20 as I wanted to, because they were still trying to protect the classicism of the idea of Balenciaga and the idea of Gap. Or the idea of the Gap and Ye collaboration and Balenciaga collaboration. My thought is, I mean, let’s take it and get it to free. But, at least, get it to $20.”
Earlier in the day, West’s lawyers notified Gap that the megastar was walking away from his deal with the company, alleging that the retailer failed to live up to its part of the agreement to distribute Yeezy products.
But West had more to talk about than the Gap, including co-parenting with estranged wife Kim Kardashian, the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, schools of the future, books (he likened reading to eating Brussels sprouts), freedom of speech and his thoughts on wellness.
“People shame the concept of mental health; it is the lowest form of discrimination,” West said during the podcast, which was recorded in Alo’s Southern California offices. “That is a goal of mine: to be the maximum version of who we are. Be in this video game of life; [to] be [the] maximum character of who you are and that’s where your ultimate happiness will arrive.”
The interview is the first in Alo Yoga’s new podcast series on wellness. Representatives from Alo — which stands for “air, land and ocean” — wouldn’t confirm who else was scheduled to be on the show. But Harris told WWD last December that the addition of a music studio was going to help the brand and its Los Angeles-based headquarters become “the epicenter of health and wellness and education of the world.
“We believe that influencer, fashion, entertainment, music, education of wellness, they all need to merge, so then [wellness] things can go mainstream and inspire people to live these better lives,” Harris said at the time.
Fast forward to nearly a year later and Alo Yoga continues to grow its retail fleet (with international locales on the horizon), celebrity collaborations, metaverse activations and product launches. Alo recently revealed its first luxury ready-to-wear apparel brand, dubbed the “Aspen Collection,” during New York Fashion Week, alongside its first NFT.
West, meanwhile, is also increasingly busy, despite ending his partnership with the Gap. The megastar shared a few of his thoughts.
On Kardashian: “Even to this day, I’ll still give Kim [Kardashian] advice on things that can help. Because that’s going to go to the kids. She’s still gotta, you know, basically 80 percent of the time raise those children.”
On expressing emotions and the late Virgil Abloh: “I had a friend that you never saw him break a sweat, until we were at his funeral. And that was the head of Louis Vuitton, Virgil Abloh. We never saw him break a sweat until we were at his funeral. People down expression. And I’m saying, be expressive.”
On American manufacturing: “People in manufacturing, people that work in clothes, they say the biggest threat to America is Chinese manufacturing and us not having domestic manufacturing. And you see this example here [with Alo], where there’s something different.”
On free speech and self-expression: “A logo can express and take you, you know, a long way. Putting graphics on the side of a shirt can express something. These signifiers of who we are and what we’re down with. But I definitely envision a world where we don’t have to have these signifiers. We don’t have to tell people out loud who we voted on — that that can be something private.”
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