Even by Kanye West standards, his decision to remove all other items from yeezy.com except a white t-shirt with a large black swastika on it left jaws on the floor. West had already torched his reputation, but over the last week, he went back over the ashes with a flamethrower to ensure there wasn’t an atom of credibility left unburnt.
First came him parading his wife Bianca Censori around practically naked at the Grammys, then came a posting spree on X where (among other things) he posted “IM A NAZI” and “I LOVE HITLER,” underlining previous comments he’d made on the subject. As such, his swastika t-shirt sale wasn’t so much surprising as depressing, as it’s him trying to profit from outright promoting Nazism.
Whatever his true motivations, the t-shirt is no longer on sale. And no, West didn’t have a change of heart or moment of sanity, the e-commerce provider Shopify has simply shut down yeezy.com altogether. Accessing the site currently displays a notice reading “This store is unavailable,” with Shopify apparently having concluded that using their services to hawk Nazi t-shirts was a step too far, even for them.
It’s worth underlining that Shopify has previously faced intense criticism for the people they provide services to, notably working with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. But with the swastika t-shirt, West simply pushed them too far and they pulled the site, no doubt having spotted the litany of terrible press they were receiving on social media:
A swastika t-shirt is the only item on the Yeezy website.
— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) February 10, 2025
Powered by Shopify.
It's not the first time Shopify has powered stores selling items with Swastikas.
I've reached out to them about this. They kept powering the stores.
But they did change something: their rules. pic.twitter.com/DuqROfhgAv
According to a report by The Logic, Shopify staff were under strict instructions not to engage with any criticism about yeezy.com. If support staff received a query about it they were told to say “no comment,” and if a merchant client asked what they were doing about it they were instructed to end online chat. The report also states that there’s been widespread unease in the Shopify company Slack, with Jewish employees saying they ” felt uncomfortable and unsafe that the swastika T-shirt had remained online for so long.”
It remains to be seen where West goes from here. With his vast funds, it’s entirely possible he could simply set up his own storefront and payment provider, bypassing the need to work with any other company. However, that would require effort and organization, two things that seem in short supply over at Kanye West HQ.
The depressing truth is that West is clearly on a mission to be as offensive as possible, truly challenging his inner edgy teen self. If he’s already at the praising Hitler and swastika t-shirt stage of that, then expect his future pronouncements to be even worse. Sure, you could argue that he’s suffering from a mental illness, but there are many people around him fully enabling this behavior and someone needs to step in. Maybe he could go into a vacant conservatorship?
Published: Feb 11, 2025 10:23 am