Kanye West Vaults from Broke to Billions with Yeezy in Demand (opens in new tab)

(bloomberg.com)

23 pointsbilifuduo5y ago32 comments

32 comments

luhn5y ago

Kanye has long had quite extreme ambitions. A few years ago he Tweeted an org chart for a company he called "Donda." It ranges from what you would reasonably expect ("Music Production", "Merchandising," "Web Music Store") to the absurd ("Cancer Research," "Hovercrafts", "Luxury Cloud Service")

https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/v1/articles/2016/...

whatshisface5y ago

Hey, if he wants to fund cancer research and alternative energy, he can be my guest...

On the other hand some of those are silly. "Emoticon Autocorrect"

Well, not every crazy billionaire can be as good as Musk.

derision5y ago

I mean it sounds crazy but honestly I would use it. There's been more than a few times I've typed a message in haste and hit the wrong emoji. My keyboard already ranks them by recently used and somehow does some context matching, so current technology isn't even too far off from that idea.

Ozzie_osman5y ago

> He calls it the “next frontier of living for humanity.”

Sounds like something Adam Neumann would say.

mardifoufs5y ago

Yeah but Kanye is actually generating billions in revenue and is one of the biggest cultural icons right now which imo gives him more of a pass to be weird.

Neumann was more of a conman that was only good at turning billions of dollars into...billions of dollars of debt. And don't forget his weird cultish entourage.

ashtonkem5y ago

Kanye is both a cultural icon, and also regularly sounds unhinged. That’s not a value statement, just an observation.

2 more replies

CamperBob25y ago

How do artists actually collect this kind of cash these days, now that no one buys CDs? Wouldn't he need a trillion or so streaming listeners to generate a billion dollars?

Edit: never mind, looks like he's selling sneakers.

5 more replies

Barrin925y ago

One of the most cynical things about his entire persona is that a few months ago he was ranting on about black people being brainwashed and that they'd need to make economically sensible choices and pretty much the entire 'bootstrap' speech, and then he's out there selling overpriced sneakers to kids calling it the next frontier for humanity.

whatshisface5y ago

Those two don't contradict, he probably thinks that people who can't afford sneakers shouldn't buy them whereas those who can should buy his.

1 more reply

dreammakr5y ago

He doesn't control pricing, Adidas does. He called CEO of Payless to make a deal at one point and was turned away.

1 more reply

WheelsAtLarge5y ago

Kanye was broke when he married into the Kardashians. I suspect he gained a lot of marketing knowledge from them. Good for him.

aazaa5y ago

> Alexandra Fletcher, a Bank of America spokeswoman, confirmed the authenticity of the document reviewed by Bloomberg. Prepared in September, it hasn’t been updated since the coronavirus pandemic began. The valuation of “future royalties generated in the footwear category is estimated from $1.75 billion to $3 billion,” according to the bank’s preliminary analysis.

It sounds like that preliminary analysis will be revised... downward.

sfblah5y ago

I can’t even begin to understand what would cause someone to buy a pair of “Yeezy” shoes.

kgraves5y ago

Other rich people, (Million|Billion)aires, it's a status thing.

loeg5y ago

Vast majority of "sneaker culture" participants are not even close to millionaire/billionaire wealth.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

32 comments

luhn5y ago

https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/v1/articles/2016/...

whatshisface5y ago

Hey, if he wants to fund cancer research and alternative energy, he can be my guest...

On the other hand some of those are silly. "Emoticon Autocorrect"

Well, not every crazy billionaire can be as good as Musk.

derision5y ago

Ozzie_osman5y ago

> He calls it the “next frontier of living for humanity.”

Sounds like something Adam Neumann would say.

mardifoufs5y ago

Yeah but Kanye is actually generating billions in revenue and is one of the biggest cultural icons right now which imo gives him more of a pass to be weird.

Neumann was more of a conman that was only good at turning billions of dollars into...billions of dollars of debt. And don't forget his weird cultish entourage.

ashtonkem5y ago

Kanye is both a cultural icon, and also regularly sounds unhinged. That’s not a value statement, just an observation.

2 more replies

CamperBob25y ago

How do artists actually collect this kind of cash these days, now that no one buys CDs? Wouldn't he need a trillion or so streaming listeners to generate a billion dollars?

Edit: never mind, looks like he's selling sneakers.

5 more replies

Barrin925y ago

whatshisface5y ago

Those two don't contradict, he probably thinks that people who can't afford sneakers shouldn't buy them whereas those who can should buy his.

1 more reply

dreammakr5y ago

He doesn't control pricing, Adidas does. He called CEO of Payless to make a deal at one point and was turned away.

1 more reply

WheelsAtLarge5y ago

Kanye was broke when he married into the Kardashians. I suspect he gained a lot of marketing knowledge from them. Good for him.

aazaa5y ago

It sounds like that preliminary analysis will be revised... downward.

sfblah5y ago

I can’t even begin to understand what would cause someone to buy a pair of “Yeezy” shoes.

kgraves5y ago

Other rich people, (Million|Billion)aires, it's a status thing.

loeg5y ago

Vast majority of "sneaker culture" participants are not even close to millionaire/billionaire wealth.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse