#Kanye West wants to make Yeezy shoes, clothes in Wyoming

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Kanye West and daughter North West at Paris Fashion Week in March.
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Kanye West aims to launch manufacturing for his Yeezy streetwear line in Wyoming by the end of this year.

The “Closed on Sunday” singer hopes to produce over 1 million pairs of shoes in the Cowboy State by the start of next year, with apparel production to begin in the US “shortly after,” a Yeezy rep told trade publication Business of Fashion.

In Cody, Wyoming — where West has been snapping up properties since 2017, including a pair of ranches — the hip-hop mogul expects to add “design and prototyping jobs, with assembly line positions to follow,” according to the Cody Enterprise, a local paper that snagged an interview with West this week.

Last week, West confirmed a surprise collaboration between Yeezy and Gap that sent Gap shares soaring as much as 43 percent. Yeezy also has a wildly successful footwear partnership with Adidas.

“I loved folding clothes at the Gap too, that was an aspirational job for me,” West told the Cody pub. “When everybody in my school was wearing oversized clothes, I was ‘gapped’ out. That was always my style.”

West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, bought their two ranches in the town of 10,000 in 2019. The rapper, who moved his company’s headquarters to Cody the same year, told the local paper that Yeezy will handle product development while Gap handles distribution. West added that he plans to open his own retail stores, with a shop “definitely” coming to Cody.

The star also went off script and he began riffing on his love of God and Jesus during the interview.

“I stay as obedient to Jesus Christ as a man can be and allow God to use me and do everything I can to not be in the way of the blessings,” West said. “Ways that he can use me — simply, I’m here to be of service and be a servant to Jesus Christ, to my wife and children, to my uncles, aunts and cousins, to my friends, to my community, and you know I got to do it to my country.”

The Yeezy Gap apparel line is set to hit stores and online in early 2021 and will include “modern, elevated basics for men, women and kids at accessible price points,” according to a news release from the brands.