Kanye West’s YEEZY brand has a new head of design.
Nur Abbas will take on the role and will report directly to Ye, according to a report from WWD. Prior to YEEZY, Abbas was a designer at Nike for over five years, most recently as design director at Nike ACG. Other past roles for Abbas include head menswear designer at UNIQLO, senior menswear designer at Louis Vuitton, and designer at Gucci.
The YEEZY head of design position is a new and separate role from that of Steven Smith, who will continue as YEEZY’s executive design director. In this role, Abbas will oversee all YEEZY projects, which includes adidas YEEZY footwear, YEEZY GAP apparel, and Stemwear, an upcoming clothing line connected to the Stem Player music device.
Ye may have previously alluded to this new addition to the YEEZY team in his unreleased song “Life of the Party,” where he raps “I might hire the whole team from ACG, so don’t text me like I’m Juanita JCV.” This line was believed to be a shot at Drake back when they were still beefing, as there have been rumors that Drake’s NOCTA line is working on a collaboration with Nike ACG.
“I’m energized to work with Ye because he cares so deeply about design and moving culture forward,” Abbas told WWD. “At YEEZY and GAP, I’ve met some of the most talented people and teams, and I’m looking forward to working with them all to extend this new creative vision to the world.”
