On Sept. 15, after days of ranting about the Gap online, lawyers for the Kanye West issued a notice to the retailer giant to terminate Ye’s partnership with them for his Yeezy Gap clothing line.
Now the hip-hop billionaire is heating up his legal war with the Gap by tapping an attorney who represents Tesla founder Elon Musk and fellow rap mogul Jay-Z. West has hired attorney Alex Spiro to help him in the Gap drama.
In addition to his current attorney Nicholas Gravante of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Spiro adds serious name recognition and credibility to West’s legal team.
West claimed the apparel company is “holding [my clothes] hostage in the office and in the wash houses” in an Instagram post on Monday.
Who is Alex Spiro?
A trial lawyer, Alexander Spiro is a partner at the New York office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. At the firm, the Harvard Law School grad serves as co-chair of the Investigations, Government Enforcement & White Collar Defense Practice.
Spiro has represented Jay-Z and Roc Nation countless times. He was part of billionaire Robert Kraft’s legal team when he defended the New England Patriots owner against misdemeanor solicitation charges.
The New York Post reported that Spiro is representing Musk. Twitter sued Musk after he reneged on his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter.
Why is Kanye West Fighting with Gap?
West, who terminated his business deal with Gap over allegations of infringing his clothing ideas and being pushed out, originally wanted to bring his concept Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga to Gap stores.
“Give me all the clothes they are holding hostage in the office and in the wash houses,” West posted.
West has also echoed his sentiments on CNBC, where he accuses Gap of breaching its agreement and that he needs to create his own storefront.
West claims Gap was overcharging his Yeezy items, with some products, according to West, supposed to be priced at around $20.
“Gap left Ye no choice but to terminate their collaboration agreement because of Gap’s substantial noncompliance,” said Gravante, West’s attorney with Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
The cheapest item of the collection, a T-shirt with doves, is priced at $140. The most expensive items are up to $400.
West said he desires his Yeezy collection to be $200 at the most, according to GQ.
“Everyone knows that I’m the leader, I’m the king. A king can’t live in someone else’s castle. A king has to make his own castle,” West.
Gap CEO Mark Breitbard said the company would sell its remaining inventory of the second and final Yeezy x Balenciaga crossover throughout the end of the year.
