‘Just stupid’: Yeezy employee recalls Kanye West’s ‘White Lives Matter’ stunt

What really led Kanye West to wear his infamous "White Lives Matter" T-shirt at his own YZY SZN (Yeezy Season) 9 presentation in Paris on 3 October?

In a 9 November article in rollingstone.com ("Inside Kanye West's Yeezy: Abrupt Firings, Alleged Nazi Inspiration and 'Pure Chaos'"), employees at West's company Yeezy open up:
"Two Yeezy employees tell Rolling Stone about the conversations that would turn into the controversial 'White Lives Matter' T-shirts. Before leaving for Paris, the working idea was for the shirt to have a message that touched on race along the lines of 'We Are Niggerish,' one of the sources claims.

"It was definitely supposed to be something that called on race, the staffer explains, a sentiment that leaned toward making fun of white people.

"White Lives Matter [and] Candace Owens in combination just made it political, and just stupid, the staffer adds.

"West's 'White Lives Matter' stunt in Paris would kick off a tumultuous six-week period where he lost both his billionaire status and the respect of fashion and music industry peers over his continued antisemitic comments. At the end of his scorched-earth mission — which saw West aligning himself even further with right-wing polemicists like Owens and Tucker Carlson — he finally got what he apparently wanted: He gained full control over Yeezy going forward when Adidas and Gap cut him loose."

Before the debacle, West's Yeezy Adidas collaboration was overwhelmingly lucrative.

Media reported that, in 2019, Yeezy's Adidas sneakers earned a staggering $1.3 billion in annual revenue. It was so successful, Forbes compared Yeezy to Air Jordan as a powerful cultural symbol and commercial viability.

A Wikipedia entry said: "In 2020, Forbes described Yeezy's ability to rival Air Jordan for 'sneaker world supremacy' within just a short period of time as 'one of the great retail stories of the century.' West was receiving an 11 percent royalty cut. That year, sales for the sneakers reached nearly $1.7 billion in annual revenue, netting Yeezy $191 million in just royalties."

The latest from Adidas is the brand has decided to continue selling its Yeezy line — but without West's name on it. Adidas chief financial officer Harm Ohlmeyer has been quoted saying the company owns the designs it collaborated with West: "Adidas is the sole owner of all design rights registered to existing product. We intend to make use of these rights as early as 2023."