When a countdown appeared on the GAP website yesterday, fans immediately started speculating what was going to release. Would it be another colorway of the popular Round jacket? Or something completely different?
When GAP finally revealed that the next product on its release schedule was a hoodie, fans were divided. $90 dollars for a plain hoodie? Forget it. “Boring,” “Groundbreaking,” and “it is just a regular hoodie,” were some of the responses we saw on the Highsnobiety Instagram, where fans quickly pointed out that paying that much money for something that “they could get at Zara” just wasn’t worth it.
And they’re not wrong, the hoodie is definitely more expensive than your average GAP piece. However, it is made from 100% organic cotton, is double-layered – and is definitely cheaper than Kanye’s previous YEEZY pieces.
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Ever since the inception of his eponymous brand, Ye’s focus has always been elevated basics created from quality materials, and he’s bringing that ethos with him to GAP as well. You may be paying $90 for a seemingly plain hoodie, but you’re buying into Kanye’s idea that quality always comes first.
In the rapper’s previous YEEZY season collections, the average hoodie was priced at around $400. These were crafted from similar materials such as cotton and fleece, with a similar shape and aesthetic to the GAP version, but at a much higher price point. Making the hoodie together with GAP means that Ye is able to make his recognizable pieces much more accessible to a younger crowd, even though it still isn’t necessarily cheap.
But the decision to drop a hoodie isn’t just a Kanye thing – it is a strategy from GAP. “Our classic Gap hoodie is having a moment, so much so that we reissued it in a vintage brown for preorder delivering this fall,” former GAP CEO Sonia Syngal told CNN. She also said that the retailer has seen huge success since its ten-year partnership with Ye was first announced, seeing 75% of the purchases from the Round jacket coming from customers new to the GAP brand.
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The YEEZY x GAP hoodie might not be a revolutionary piece of clothing, but its impact will be ever-lasting. The hoodie is a wardrobe staple made for Kanye Fans, and with it being seasonless, it will become a Kanye classic for years to come.
Whether you’re a fan of Kanye or not (after his DONDA antics and his public support of Marilyn Manson and DaBaby it is becoming increasingly hard), paying $90 for a good hoodie might be a good option if you do have the money and the means to do so.
The hoodie is actually already selling for $300 on Grailed, so those $90 turned out to be an investment after all. When compared to other “branded” hoodies, Heron Preston‘s Calvin Klein hoodie sold for $129, the average hoodie at Balenciaga and Vetements will cost you around $700, YEEZY x GAP almost seems affordable in comparison.