Yeezy Gap launch first physical retail in New York’s Times Square

Heavy duty refuse sacks filled with garments, piled on the floor. Blacked out walls and shutters that nod to a distilled utopia. Not the usual experience one expects to find in a retail store, let alone one operated by Gap Inc.

But that is precisely the image Kanye West aimed to convey for the first Yeezy Gap physical space at Gap’s Times Square store.

Stripped to its essential forms

In a statement the company said the Manhattan flagship had been reengineered and distilled to its most essential form.

Queues around the block and shoppers high with anticipation were seen across social media, as Gap banned video and photography inside the boutique.

The entry of Yeezy Gap into its parent company’s stores fulfils the vision to have a unique retail environment for the product, one that has its own identity and little overlap in styling or image with the rest of Gap’s brand and collections. The launch into physical retail also aims to deliver Yeezy Gap on a larger scale.

The utilitarian store design will first roll out to select US stores before it launches internationally. The opening coincides with the brand’s first collaboration with Balenciaga, which for the first time is available at Gap stores and online.