Rahma Ahmed
By Ahmed Rahma
Amid divorce from wife, Kim Kardashian, an American rapper and fashion designer, Kanye West, became the wealthiest black man in America with a $6.6 billion net worth.
It was reported that the 43-year-old rapper, who is also a politician, net worth largely came from his Yeezy fashion brand.
The rapper’s sneaker and apparel business now bolstered by Adidas AG and Gap Inc. is valued between $3.2 billion and $4.7 billion by UBS Group AG, according to a media outlet.
The father-of-four has an additional $1.7 billion in assets, $122 million in cash and stock, and $110 from his music career.
The fashion designing journey of the rapper who claimed to be undervalued started in 2006 when he designed a shoe for Adidas but was never released.
The first brand to officially collaborate with Kanye West was Bape.
Together, West and Bape released a pair of Bapesta “College Dropout” shoes, which are now quite rare and garner high resell prices. He has also designed shoes for Louis Vuitton and Giuseppe Zanotti, and most notably Nike.
His collaboration with Nike lasted for five years and led to the release of a total of three (two silhouettes, Yeezy 1 and the Yeezy 2) sneaker styles.
In 2013, after the release of the “Red October” Air Yeezy 2s, Kanye West officially left Nike.
Although West described this break as “heartbreaking”, he claimed that Nike would not pay him royalties for his shoe designs, instead offering to pay some of the proceeds to a charity of West’s choice.
This ultimately led West to reach out to Adidas and the popular brand agreed to give him royalties, which made West describe the CEO of Adidas as “someone who allowed [him] to build something”.
