The demand for the unisex blue puffer jacket is so high that Gap's website experiences flood of traffic as soon as the first item from the Yeezy Gap Line is made available for preorder.
- Jun 9, 2021
AceShowbiz - Kanye West is launching his collaboration with Gap on his birthday. On Tuesday, June 8, the same day he turned 44 years old, the rapper/designer made the first item from his anticipated Yeezy Gap Line available for preorder.
The single item is a unisex blue puffer jacket that he was spotted wearing on June 3, during which he also donned a bizarre mask to cover his face. The jacket retails for $200 and doesn't have a zipper or button, so it's clearly not designed to keep one warm, but only for fashion.
Despite the unpractical function of the jacket, the demand for the item is apparently high. Hours after the item dropped, it was already sold out with a spokesperson for Gap telling FOX Business in an email that the waiting room for pre-orders of the jacket "will reopen soon."
Other interest buyers reported that they tried and failed to add the jacket to their shopping carts, with many shoppers getting error messages, due to high traffic. Sources close to the situation tell TMZ there were over 50,000 users on the site within the first 30 minutes of launch, causing it to crash.
The sources say Gap didn't anticipate flood of website traffic, while the launch of Kanye's Yeezy jacket is believed to have helped bring in the most traffic in the site's history. While the release of the item wasn't preceded by any official announcements beforehand, "floating projections" of the jacket from Yeezy Gap Line have popped up at a number of locations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago starting Tuesday morning as part of its marketing campaign.
Kanye announced his 10-year deal with Gap last year. The Yeezy Gap Line will roll out apparel for women, men and kids starting this fall.
Prior to the Gap collaboration, the "Follow God" MC has struck a sneaker partnership with Adidas. His Yeezy fashion line has been valued at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by UBS, according to Bloomberg.
