I avoided reading this Forbes article on Kanye West all weekend for obvious reasons – I didn’t want to be in a bad mood after reading six pages of rants about domes. But as it turns out, this Forbes article is pretty good. The basic gist is that Forbes featured Kanye on one of their covers last year, as they discussed how his empire (mostly his creation of the Yeezy line) could one day be a billion-dollar empire. Kanye refused to provide Forbes with any business data at the time, so they had no idea how much his empire was actually worth. Kanye was mad at Forbes for not taking his word for it, and not believing that he was already a billionaire. It grated it on him so much that he eventually succumbed and allowed Forbes to see the documentation. Their analysis of the documentation: he’s worth, on paper, a little more than a billion. From Forbes:
When we featured West on the cover of Forbes last summer, delving into his incredible success with Yeezy, he seemed pleased at first. His world-famous wife, Kim Kardashian West, even tweeted her congratulations, to the positive affirmations of 32,300 of their closest Twitter friends. But without sufficient documentation on his unusual stake, versus just his word and industry guesstimates, we didn’t call him a billionaire. And that grated on him. As the year wore on, he protested publicly. (“I showed them a $890 million receipt, and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire,’” he told an industry panel, about something that no one at Forbes remembers.) In private, he was more biting. (A “disrespectful article,” he texted this week, that was “purposely snubbing me.”)
When our annual billionaires list appeared earlier this month, again with West absent—still no documentation, and now a pandemic to boot—West again reacted with hurt and venom. “You know what you’re doing,” he texted. “You’re toying with me and I’m not finna lye [sic] down and take it anymore in Jesus name.” At one point, he texted that Forbes was “part of a group of media” that was trying to suppress his self-made narrative because of his race. That sister-in-law Kylie Jenner did make the list also clearly stuck in his craw.
Then, yesterday, a breakthrough: West directed his team to provide what we feel is an authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc. Three things became clear from this exercise. First, it reinforces why we put him on the cover in the first place—West, in just a few years, has created a brand that’s challenging Nike’s Air Jordan for sneaker world supremacy. It’s one of the great retail stories of the century.
Second, it reinforced that West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overly boastful as his political idol, President Donald Trump. Not a numbers guy? We agree. Finally—and perhaps most critically to West—it does confirm, based on our estimates, that his stake in Yeezy indeed makes him a billionaire. A bit over $1 billion, actually.
I sort of believe it, based solely on the popularity of Yeezy sneakers. I still wonder if the Yeezy clothing line is really all that popular (Forbes says the Yeezy clothing line loses money), but the sneakers definitely are. But the fact that Kanye was bitterly texting Forbes journalists about how disrespectful they are to not take his word for everything… wow. Trumpian. Thin-skinned. I also think it’s kind of hilarious how every member of the West-Kardashian-Jenner clan is absolutely sick with jealousy at Kylie Jenner’s financial success.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Must be some kind of new math. Really, a billionaire? I remember reading a few years ago that he was broke and needing Kim to come through for him.
He was literally begging Zuckerburg to pay him a billion for his ‘ideas’ in 2016.
I poked around on google a bit, and apparently Scooter Braun used to be his manager, which I definitely didn’t know.
He gets 15% royalty on the wholesale price of the sneakers, which is more than most collabs are able to negotiate for. Michael Jordans’ shoes generate double what Kanye’s made in 2019 ( KW= 1.5b, MJ = 3b) but he only makes around 5% of it.
I do genuinely think the Kardashian influence has helped him – not sure if Pimp Mam K is helping negotiate deals or what – but he’s supposedly been able to do a complete turn around in 4 years. So either the books are being seriously cooked, or he’s bringing in a TON of money.
I’m assuming the math they’re using is a reverse-Hollywood situation. There’s quite a famous story about how Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix “wasn’t profitable” despite doing almost a billion dollars at the box office. There’s an entire tv tropes page about it called Hollywood Accounting. It’s a fascinating and yet depressing read.
Between this and the disinfectant story … this blog is killing my will to live today. Blerg.
Well, I don’t care what he’s worth. He’s a massive bell end, and no amount of money can ever fix that.
I think the important thing to take from this is that, on paper, he may be worth that much. He’s certainly not liquid $1 billion. But I find it believable that Kanye is eye-wateringly wealthy with help from the Kardashian’s financial managers.
I also think Kanye still owes money to many people and will use the business instincts and savvy of his best President friend to guide him in his future choices. He’ll just not pay back those loans and debts.
Wasn’t the headline he was broke a few years ago and Kim was leaving him? I just can’t with the Kardashian-Jenner-West idiots.
What?! Wasn’t he begging for money to pay back debts? I’m a millionaire then by Forbes’ standards.
Yeah – I’ve read that he is *deeply* in debt. I didn’t see mention of that in the article. I don’t take issue of the valuation of his brand, but I find it interesting there was no mention of personal debts.
perhaps the debt is why West claims he’s worth well over $3B and is pissed that Forbes only credits him as being a tad over $1B.
Of course all of this during a pandemic where people are dying, people who are surviving are concerned about medical bills and much of the country is legit worried about whether they have jobs and/or can support their families.
I should also note that this,/i> is what Kanye choosing to focus on despite the fact that African Americans are disproportionately affected by those issues noted above. This says all anyone needs to know about Kanye West.
It’s definitely the debt. So American… I was born and live in California. Lots of us think what pull in is more important than our debt. The virus is blowing up the lives with high debt in addition to the working poor whose backs we live on.
Americans think that debt is fine, and we pressure ourselves because ‘Merica and the American dream. Too many of us are shallow and thick. Kanye reminds me of my cousin, who was in terrible debt, but wanted Coach bags and wore massive diamonds from her husband. Her husband had been in the military, and they are civilians who work in the military. They would buy new furniture and trucks and “stuff” because they believe that they should carry debt to keep the economy going. She made it sound like a conservative principle. My mind was blown. All of a sudden, a bunch of conservative actions through the last 20 years made sense to my little pea brain.
It’s all smoke and mirrors (aka lies) – like everything the Ks do.
Are the Yeezy sneakers that popular though? For a bland clothing brand to be worth 1 Billion? I have several friends from University who went into working for luxury brands and even if Kanye West buys from those brands (example, Cartier, ugly ring with a tiger on it, my friend showed me the design it’s really on brand for him, but just really tacky), they never mention anyone wearing or ever buying from his brand. Does not seem famous at all in Europe?
That’s what I was thinking. Who’s buying those horrible shoes and doomsday cult leisure wear??? If I’ve learned anything from “American Greed” anyone can dummy up a report or spreadsheet.
Most of the sales from those awful shoes are sold in Asia.
His designer wear sometimes shows up on YOOX, but I’ve never seen them on sites like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus. I don’t get the appeal beyond the name, to be honest. The women’s shoes are just unflattering and bland, and the sneakers aren’t particularly anything interesting color or style wise. That’s all name selling them – and while that can be true of a lot of designer wear, at least brands like Prada or Givenchy sometimes release truly unique and inspired fashion in addition to their boring basics.
He sold over a billion dollars worth in 2019. His business model is more like Supreme – extremely limited releases that are unusually expensive. They don’t want stock sitting around in a department store. He is totally the worst, and has terrible fashion, and is definitely lying about his money, but the sneaker profit seems reasonable relative to other lines and its popularity in the US. It’s very big in the US because of the limited quantity thing, everyone wants an exclusive. I wonder if sneakers do better than other fashion because so many of them hold or increase value over time?
Really interesting thank you!
I guess he put his mind to it and he succeeded in business. What’s next? Becoming president of the United States in 2024 It will be a stiff race between him and Donald Trump Jr. and I would not mind Kim as FLOTUS. Compared to Melania Kim would be better.
The sad, scary thing is – this is probably exactly what he’s thinking except he’s assuming Don Jr will be running as his VP.
Yea supposedly he has very cash poor, though. And nobody in their right mind would buy Yeezy. He is apprenticing under DJT in the area of “How to inflate your net worth”. He must be equally self conscious.
They actually mention in the article how Forbes would assume DJT was worth less than 1/3 of what he said
His Ego is definitely worth a billion.
The only person dumb enough it take him in and feed and clothe him is KK. Lol.
I believe it like I believe Donald Trump is a billionaire lol.
Not that it should be anything to brag about. Anybody who breaks nine digits is inevitably exploiting people somewhere, somehow horribly.
Good to know he’s worried about the important stuff during a pandemic. Just like his beloved fuhrer.
And it’s weird – for such a god fearing man shouldn’t he be less obsessed with personal wealth?
On the contrary, American evangelists are all about wealth because that’s how you know God favors and ~blesses you.~ It’s how they turn poverty into a personal flaw to avoid having any compassion for them.
Ever see that post of the “pastors” in their super expensive sneakers? It’s so disgusting.
And I agree grabbyhands, in the middle of all this nightmare, THIS is what he’s worried about? FFS. Are he or any of his awful in-laws actually doing anything to help?
One of Jesus’ most popular themes was the evils of materialism. Right wing evangelicals are pretty much the diametrically opposed to actual Christianity.
I don’t know what those silver outfits/paint are about, but that made me laugh out loud….he looks like a bloated gum drop.
I am mostly here to comment on how much I LOVE that picture being used again. It sums up the guy.
Baked potato. He looks like a baked potato wrapped in foil.
*whispers* I don’t understand, those sneakers are butt-ugly.
No really, how??? First of all, it’s still a collab with adidas, right? That’s a listed company with a profit of 1.9 bn in 2019. HOW would the Yeezy sneakers make him a billionaire? Even on paper? I’m sure they are successful but they are expensive as hell and the target market can’t be that large. They also haven’t been around that long, some were limited edition. And as if adidas wasn’t pocketing most of the profits. I never understand how celebrities’ finances are analyzed. He is not a billionaire.
My favorite part of the article, by far, was the Frobes reporter saying that whenever DJT would tell them his “net worth,” they would divide that by 3 and then start going down from there. Kanye is just the same
Lol Billionaire. He is insufferable and his shoes are fugly!
What a tool.
He is the same kind of billionaire that Trump is. Mob money laundering is a steady gig.
he looks like a goddam fool.
I wish billionaire’s paid proper taxes. That’s all I got. That’s all.
This family is so ridiculous. Having temper tantrums over how rich you are and bragging about it? Hmmm ok. They are all so jealous of Kylie it’s funny. Kylie made her money super easy. She barely had to do anything. They can’t handle it.
Let’s be real. None of them, including Kylie, are billionaires but like others have said we’re in a pandemic so who really cares