1. Two weeks ago, LVMH welcomed Pharrell as the creative director of menswear for its flagship brand, Louis Vuitton. 2. Louis Vuitton’s former artistic director of menswear, Virgil Abloh, has described his own approach as, “One big art project, just a canvas to show that fashion should have a brand which has someone behind it […]
When Ye announced the Yeezy stores, I wrote this thread: Yeezy is one of the most exciting, energetic, and relevant businesses in the world right now, which makes it worth investigating. There’s a clear connection Ye wants to make between himself and Steve Jobs, so naturally I looked into Apple stores and came across this […]
In tenth grade, I learned about the 4 P’s of Marketing in business class: product, placement, price, and promotion. I’ve long considered product and promotion the most important pieces; in recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the power of price. Today, I want to write about placement and why it’s fascinating: There’s a tension that […]
Here are the facts: As a brand, whatever Gap was doing on its own wasn’t working. If you search New York Times for “Gap,” the latest articles mentioning the company all revolve around Yeezy Gap. Yeezy Gap rolled out two pieces in 18 months; at this pace, the alliance would need to break inertia, otherwise […]
In addition to Yeezy Gap engineered by Balenciaga drops, Yeezy dropped a video game: I played it. It was simple, not particularly mind-blowing or buzzworthy. But it was also worth appreciating that this has been a long time in the making; it took several years just to get to this starting line. I’m glad Ye […]
Building a luxury brand is difficult. But luxury brands are the way of the future (better margins, stronger branding, improved longevity, cultural relevance, increased desirability—I want to explain this more in another piece!); every business will need to be or own an upscale brand, the same way that Toyota has Lexus, and Honda has Acura. […]
One of the most compelling parts of Ye’s backstory is how he tries to speak outcomes into existence (an example is in this interview). “Think it. Say it. Do it,” writes Ye and J. Sakiya Sandifer in Thank You and You’re Welcome. Ye’s perspective comes from roots in prosperity gospel, one of the tenets of […]
After Ye got suspended from IG, French Montana wrote that Ye would make his own social media platform. It’s an interesting idea, and he definitely could! It’d also be a risky one. Here’s why: The main benefit to mainstream social media is visibility. Ye makes headlines in mainstream press every time he posts, which perpetuates […]
Ye is well-known for his confidence and for speaking things into existence—a quality many of us admire and emulate—but it steals the spotlight from another one that’s actually way more powerful: positioning. Ye had parents who gifted him with self-confidence, but he also was a master of finding opportunities. First, he decided to produce music […]