As many anticipated at the start of the partnership, the collaboration between Gap and Ye ultimately fell apart.

This once-iconic brand's partnership with the fashion designer was supposed to be, as parent company Gap Inc. stated in 2020, "a robust creative partnership with multi-season product development." However, after sporadic limited releases and weeks of inappropriate behavior from Ye (i.e., Kanye West), Gap on Tuesday followed Adidas in pulling its remaining Yeezy inventory.

Ye's outlandish actions are characteristic of him, but this time they were particularly troublesome. After wearing a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt at Paris Fashion Week, Ye spread anti-Semitic, conspiracy theories, and other offensive remarks on social media, podcasts, and television interviews.

"In September, Gap announced the termination of its Yeezy Gap partnership. The recent comments and actions of our former partner further confirm this decision. We are taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap products from stores and have closed YeezyGap.com," the company said in a statement. "Anti-Semitism, racism, and any form of hatred are unforgivable and contrary to our values, and will not be tolerated. For the sake of our customers, employees, and shareholders, we are working with organizations that combat hate and discrimination."

However, Gap's announcement last month to end the partnership came only after Ye himself had announced it first. Brand head Mark Breitbard said at the time that the planned Yeezy Gap releases would continue, which displeased many customers who demanded on social media that they be halted, while Ye continued his inflammatory rhetoric.

Gap announced it was pulling remaining Yeezy merchandise just hours after Adidas announced it was ending its multi-year Yeezy partnership, a decision that would cost the sneaker giant $246 million in profit this year alone. But experts point out that the two statements differ greatly in scope.

"Adidas did exactly the right thing. I wish they had acted sooner, but their statement reflects a values-based business stance, which is what many of us increasingly expect," Jo-Ellen Pozner, a professor at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business and an expert on organizational misconduct and reputation, said in a phone interview. "Adidas articulated its values and bottom line excellently and clearly showed what it was willing to give up to do the right thing. That is very powerful. Gap did not achieve this in its decision."

You reap what you sow, you Ye what you sow

The hip-hop artist's record of making inflammatory remarks in public and in music existed before Gap signed him. For example, two years before the Yeezy Gap launch, he had said that Black people chose slavery. Despite this, Gap decided to collaborate with Ye and was slow to react to his recent provocations, reflecting a brand's desperate disorientation, experts say.

"What is Gap? Who is it for? In the past few years, they have been struggling to find direction. Honestly, I can't remember when I last knew clearly what Gap stands for," Deb Gabor, CEO and founder of Sol Marketing, said in a phone interview. "If you want to partner with someone who can bring relevance to your brand, choose carefully. Kanye West is a professional provocateur; when you attach your brand to a human billboard, you have to bear that person's entire brand identity, whether you like it or not."

GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders pointed out that this highlights the importance of any brand thoroughly vetting its celebrity partners.

"Honestly, I can't remember when I last knew clearly what Gap stands for."

—Deb Gabor, CEO and founder of Sol Marketing

"Although the fashion world allows for some tension, this must never cross the line of decency and basic humanity," he said in an email comment. "Companies or brands that fail to heed this will be harmed, especially when they rely too heavily on a difficult figure to drive business."

Even Wells Fargo analysts who two years ago predicted Yeezy Gap could become a billion-dollar brand saw significant risks. Although they expected it to attract attention and sales from younger consumers, they also acknowledged that some existing Gap customers would be alienated by the inevitably "polarizing" new brand, which they estimated could cost Gap about $290 million in sales.

"Gap must now look back at the decision to partner with Ye and reflect on what it was thinking," Saunders said in an email. "It must also regret promoting the deal so prominently rather than making it part of a broader rebranding strategy."

Cleaning up the mess

This summer, Ye's decision to display Yeezy Gap clothing in trash bags sparked the kind of provocative attention Gap presumably hoped for when signing him. Now, the brand faces the question of how to handle a large amount of unsold merchandise.

"Pulling products will come at a cost because Gap will likely need to write off inventory," Saunders said. "This is also the latest setback in a partnership that has become increasingly problematic, driven more by desperation than genuine alignment of interests."

"Gap must now look back at the decision to partner with Ye and reflect on what it was thinking."

—Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData

Unlike Adidas—which reportedly will sell Yeezy designs without the Yeezy label—Gap's Yeezy designs are disconnected from its core product lines. This leaves Gap facing the very problem it sought to solve with the Ye partnership: how to regain its standing in American fashion.

Ye arguably made the brand cool again, at least for a small audience and a brief period, but without Ye, Gap has no foothold in culture, said Frankie Margotta, a strategist at brand experience firm Siegel + Gale. In contrast, because Adidas has its own cultural credibility and a history of successful collaborations, it will continue to remain relevant, he said.

"I don't think they ever seriously examined—'What impact does this have on our Gap brand? Are we re-emerging as a different identity? Are we transforming? Is this integrated into our brand today?'" he said in a video conference. "What truly made them cool was just the association with Ye. Now that they've lost that, because they haven't really worked on the brand, you have this huge void."