Shopify temporarily shut down Kanye West’s YEEZY store, however it has since reopened with new products and lower prices. Earlier this week, the online store, which uses the Shopify platform, was shut down because it was found to be selling T-shirts with swastika insignia on them.
The item, which was also released at the same time as West’s antisemitic, homophobic, and sexist outbursts on X, garnered heavy criticism from groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The backlash got worse because Shopify let the items be sold for more than a day before closing down the business, which led to even more condemnation. Shopify’s “real business practices” regulations said that the store had to close since it broke one of them.
After the scandal, West’s talent agency, 33& West, stopped working with him. This is the latest in a succession of problems for the rapper. In 2022, he was dropped by the big talent agency CAA for making a lot of antisemitic statements.
The reopening of the YEEZY store shows that the company is changing how it does business. People used to know that YEEZY items were expensive. The new product line does have some pricey things, such YEEZY Slides for $20, but the most expensive item right now is $100. This scaled-back plan with costs that are much lower comes at a time when West is under a lot of public scrutiny and has lost a lot of collaborations in music, fashion, and business. The relaunch comes after a 30-second Super Bowl ad that caused a lot of talk. In the video, West just told people to go to his website.