Kanye West Was Having a Really Bad Time, and This is How He Finally Came Out Of It!

InspirationJuly 28, 2019

There is no substitute for hard work if you want to reach the pinnacle of success, and Kanye West seems to have embodied that concept extremely well. The rapper is a perfect example of someone who hit rock bottom but kept persevering and has now reached the very top.

Kanye West is not only famous for his music or for being Kim Kardashian’s husband, but also for his very successful Yeezy brand.

For those of you who are unaware, back in 2016, it was reported that West had accrued a debt amounting to a massive $53 million. To recover, he had reportedly approached the social media giant Facebook with a proposition: to invest around a billion dollars on the ideas that he had developed as they supposedly promised a handsome reward.

Finding Success

A billion dollars is a lot of money, even for Mark Zuckerberg, who is the co-founder and current CEO of Facebook and also one of the richest people on the planet, and unsurprisingly West’s proposition was turned down. According to reports, this outcome did not have a negative impact on their personal relationship, as the two were seen performing a karaoke number together afterward.

Image result for kanye west mark zuckerberg

Apparently, West and Zuckerberg are friends now.

But perhaps West did not need the support of Zuckerberg at all, as he went on to make a lot of money on his own. He explored his entrepreneurial spirit and established the Yeezy brand, which has now grown to become a successful business worth approximately a billion dollars. According to figures reported by Forbes, the Yeezy brand has been able to generate a massive pre-tax income of more than $150 million.

The Adidas Deal

Most of the abovementioned income has come from the highly lucrative deal the brand signed with Adidas after leaving Nike. The Adidas line of the Yeezy apparel is expected to garner a revenue figure of around $1.5 billion in 2019 alone. According to details of the deal, West was able to negotiate that he would be receiving royalties amounting to around 15%, for lending the Yeezy brand name to Adidas. This did not include the fee which the rapper charged for the marketing of the brand.

This royalty figure is impressive, especially when compared to a similar deal signed by the former basketball player Michael Jordan with the shoemaker Nike. Although Nike makes around $3 billion from the sale of shoes being made under the Jordan Line, the basketball player only receives 5% of that amount. However, this reduced figure could be a result of the fact that West also owns the Yeezy brand, whereas the Jordan Line is not owned by Jordan.

Kanye has definitely struck a gold mine with his Adidas Yeezy deal.

Launching the Yeezy

When it came to launching the Yeezy with Adidas, West made sure he had all the nitty-gritty covered and took a comfortable two years to finalize the design for the shoemaker. The new Adidas Yeezy design, called the 2015 Yeezy Boost 750, was a mega-hit, with all the stock selling out in a little under 10 minutes, even though a single pair costs in the hundreds of dollars. The subsequent editions of the shoes, costing around the $300-$585 price range, have experienced record sales as well.