Kanye West’s family life may be nothing to write home about right now following that his wife Kim Kardashian filed for divorce last month after months of being married yet living apart from each other, but his Yeezy shoe and streetwear company is doing pretty well and making a multibillionaire, according to a new report.
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Yeezy’s Adidas sneaker sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic amid torrid demand for its dressy-yet-comfy footwear. The company is now worth as much as $3.7 billion based on the valuations of similar streetwear brands including Supreme, according to an analysis by the investment bank UBS obtained by the Post.
The figure above does not include a valuation of almost $1 billion for Yeezy’s upcoming Gap apparel line, which is scheduled to launch this summer. The two companies are wholly owned by Kanye West, sources closer to the company have revealed.
When you add the figures from the two companies to Kanye’s share of his and Kim Kardashian’s Skims underwear line, which is estimated at $1.7 billion, West’s net worth appears to have run up above the $6 billion marks.
Kanye West also has a music catalog worth an estimated $110 million and cash and stock worth $122 million, according to Bloomberg, which first published the news about Kanye’s latest increase in assets on Wednesday.
It’s expected that net worth as high as $6.6 billion would land West in the rarified company with a fortune that’s close marking the heels of Robert F. Smith, the private-equity baron who is the current richest African American with a fortune of more than $7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
Kanye West was estimated to worth $240 million in 2019 by Forbes, making him the fourth richest hip hop artist after Diddy, at $740 million, and Dr. Dre, at $800 million. Rapper Jay-Z was ranked No. 1 at $1 billion. Currently, Forbes placed Jay-Z’s net worth at $1.4 billion.
Kanye’s rapid growth is the result of Yeezy’s torrid success. Sales for Yeezy’s Adidas sneakers reportedly grew 31 percent to nearly $1.7 billion in annual revenue last year, netting Yeezy $191 million in royalties, the obtained document revealed, adding that by the end of Adidas’ Yeezy deal, revenue is expected to reach $3.1 billion.
“With an obsessive attention to product detail paired with a disciplined approach to volume management, there exists a significant runway for continued growth within this partnership and the footwear segment,” the UBS report said.
The document also said that by February 18, Gap will likely emulate the success of Yeezy’s deal with Adidas.
Kanye West, according to reports retains sole ownership and creative control of Yeezy. The company signed a 10-year agreement in 2020 to design and sell clothes for men, women, and kids under the Yeezy Gap label. The arrangement, however, excludes footwear, as Yeezy’s partnership with Adidas will stand until 2026.
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The new figures show that Gap expects Yeezy line, which it plans to launch by July, to hit $172 million in sales in its first full year in 2022, the document said. Gap envisions it becoming a billion-dollar revenue brand within eight years, with an upside case of sales exceeding $1 billion as soon as 2023, according to UBS.
