If you haven’t heard by now, one of rap’s biggest superstars Kanye West is opening 21 pop up shops this weekend worldwide. Back in February Ye released his seventh studio album, “The Life of Pablo” which many thought would be the return of the “Old Kanye”. Well it definitely wasn’t “College Dropout” but I must admit there was definitely some hits on that record. Most of you know Kanye has been toeing the line between fashion and music releasing his own collective of style entitled Yeezy Season.
Approximately 3 years ago on his “Yeezus” tour, West decided to open one pop up shop in New York debuting his merch for the album while everyone and their grandma lined up to get the exclusive Yeezus merchandise. Now let’s fast forward to few months ago where Kanye went with the same business model that he did for Yeezus opening up several pop shops in promotion for his latest album “The Life of Pablo” raking in over a million dollars in just a few days.
Well ladies and gentleman, he’s back and this time Portland was invited to the party. Ye took to his twitter account announcing there would be 21 pop up shops across the world selling his Pablo merchandise this weekend (8/19 – 8/21) by releasing an image of the globe marking which cities would be participating. Portland was one of the few north west cities that were selected. This sent the hype beasts and die hard Kanye fans of Portland into a twitter frenzy frantically trying to figure where the shop would be located. Late last night, it was released that “The Life of Pablo” pop up shop would be opening up at the Clackamas Town Center this weekend .. Yes you read that right, The Clackamas Town Center which is technically not even located in Portland. Many were skeptical of why the brand chose the Town Center for the pop up, many were even highly frustrated taking their complaints to twitter. Did they choose Clackamas because of its demographic? I’ll let you decide on that one. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter where they put it because they know people will spend their entire weekend camping out waiting to get their hands on the latest Pablo gear. Although my tone is somewhat satire, I must say that I am genuinely a fan of Kanye and I’m glad they chose a city in Portland to display his latest release. Any looks we get from the industry is a win in my opinion.
So go pay your bills (first), get your lawn chairs and cop some Pablo gear this weekend at the Clackamas Town Center!
12000 SE 82nd Ave, Happy Valley, OR 97086
Photo Courtesy of www.billboard.com
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