In the span of one week, YEEZY GAP has gone from Times Square to an interactive dumpster diving bonanza. Let me explain.
On July 20, Ye and Demna announced the first-ever IRL YEEZY GAP store, taking over GAP's giant flagship space in New York's tourist-dense Times Square.
The crush of visitors was well-documented on social media, with fairly young shoppers making up the majority of the shoppers at YEEZY GAP's Times Square space when it opened on July 21.
For those not in New York, all they could do is play the YEEZY GAP browser game and dream of YEEZY GAP Engineered by Balenciaga being available in their own local GAP stores — or so they thought.
It was then confirmed that a fleet of YEEZY GAP vans was set to distribute Ye's collection to three American cities — Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago — on July 23, the same day that YEEZY GAP would drop at in whopping 45 GAP stores across the country.
The resulting release was, unsurprisingly, chaos.
Ye's obsessive fans traveled to a series of specific locations during a stunning heat wave that lasted all weekend
Once at the spot, would-be customers had to literally dive into dumpsters full of YEEZY GAP Engineered by Balenciaga clothes to find their desired size
Considering that the entire collection remains available on YEEZY GAP's website, Balenciaga's web store, Farfetch, Mytheresa, and Luisaviaroma, that's definitely a choice.
Some shoppers have complained of long wait times for their goods but, hey, them's the breaks. Your other option involves leaping into a dumpster.
The Van drops themselves were relatively imposing, with masked and YEEZY GAP-clad figures standing watch while Ye's fans swarmed the parking structures where the vans had parked.
With no cash registers in sight, fans were free to load up on as much YEEZY GAP as they could stand but don't get it twisted: the van drops were no giveaway.
Everyone had to pay retail for the stuff they picked out of the trash bins, which means that there were plenty of $140 T-shirts and $240 dove hoodies left at the end of the day.
But the joint was buzzing regardless, demonstrative of Ye's ceaseless popularity.
At the same time, Ye performed at Rolling Loud over the weekend in a surprise twist that ended up clashing with the scheduled set of former friend Kid Cudi.
Ye had previously pulled out of the festival and Cudi had been brought in to fill the slot.
Ye, who took the stage with Lil Durk, performed "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1," a song from The Life of Pablo that, ironically, featured Cudder himself.
Meanwhile, Cudi was pelted by bottles from the crowd and stormed off mid-set.
Was it Ye's fans? Was it just another random act of sheer chaos?
All I know for sure is that Ye was looking, erm, sharp in what are apparently YEEZY GAP sunglasses, only recognizable as part of his fast-fashion partnership by way of the blue tab that connected the straps at the rear.
The color is key to YEEZY GAP, kinda, in that it's been used for the YEEZY GAP logo that appears at the neck of each garment.
Plenty of commenters on social media were neither impressed by Ye's new shades nor the YEEZY GAP dumpsters but that's showbiz for ya. And the giant crowds at the latter make it clear that there are plenty more fans than haters.
They'll all come around to Ye's vision eventually. Inevitably, everyone does.
