Kanye West announced his (alleged) 2020 presidential nomination this weekend, and he’s not done making civic-minded headlines. Today, the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration released the list of companies that applied for and received money to save jobs and protect wages during the coronavirus pandemic. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin initially planned to keep the list confidential, but many Democrats loudly demanded more transparency in the process. As a result, all the companies that received more than $ 150,000 are named, and uploading the public access spreadsheet opens a treasure chest of information. Perhaps the most notable name on the list is the company that belongs to none other than the hopeful rapper president, galaxy-brained brain designer, first discovered by NBC News reporter Leticia Miranda.
Yeezy applied for a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program, itself a part of the CARES Act, which went into effect in late March. The goal of the program was to distribute $ 350 billion to companies affected by the coronavirus pandemic, who could then keep employees on the payroll. Kanye’s brand received a loan in the range of $ 2 to $ 5 million, which went to 106 jobs, according to the SBA’s calculation.
In recent years, the numbers surrounding Yeezy LLC have been as interesting as the clothing itself. In the spring of 2018, Kanye tweeted that Yeezy “will hit a billion dollars this year” and claimed that the brand was on its way to becoming a “decacorn,” an invented word used to describe companies valued at more than $ 10 billion. Reaching decacorn status requires earning $ 3 billion in annual sales. At the time, John Kernan, a retail analyst who covers Adidas for Cowen, told GQ: “I find it hard to believe [Yeezy’s] generating more than $ 1 billion in sales. “When Kanye officially topped the multi-billion dollar mark earlier this year, the Forbes headline was:” Kanye West is now officially a multi-millionaire (and he really wants the world to know it). “
A lot of attention is paid to Yeezy’s numbers because it’s the way Kanye seems to judge Yeezy, by the numbers. Less than a year after launching his first Yeezy with Adidas, Kanye said, “Yeezy just jumped on Jumpman.” He tweeted that he is the “highest paid person in footwear,” earning even more than Michael Jordan. And earlier this year, of course, he was hooked on the coveted billionaire status.
Kanye is now operating a business seemingly in line with his place on the Forbes list. For a small American clothing brand, Yeezy sneakers are produced by Adidas, 106 is a lot of work! In the same tweet that promised to reach decacorn status starting in 2018, Kanye said: “We have 160 positions to fill before the end of the year.” (For what it’s worth, the Better Business Bureau currently sets Yeezy’s number of employees at 101.) Forget the loan or the presidential campaign. Is It’s the news: Yeezy is operating at the stadium that Kanye prophesied two years ago.
For the sake of comparison, we can look elsewhere in the world of fashion and retail. Kith received a loan in the same rank from Yeezy that allowed the brand to keep 254 jobs. Untuckit obtained loans between $ 5 and $ 10 million to rescue 921 jobs. These numbers look very different due to the fleets of stores that operate these brands: Untuckit has more than 80 locations and Kith has four massive stores. Yeezy does not have a physical retail operation, but does have a team of architects building the future of human housing in Wyoming and Calabasas.
The reason Democrats like Chuck Schumer demanded transparency in the PPP process in the first place was to make sure nothing suspicious happened between the companies and a Trump administration known for handing out favors to its friends. The PPP program has already enriched some powerful companies, such as those operated by members of the Kushner family. Apparently, the most striking thing about the Yeezy loan is not that it was awarded to someone who publicly wrote to Trump, but that Kanye’s company had 106 jobs to save in the first place.
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