Kanye West Reveals He Stopped Making Merch: ‘I Wasn’t Pushing Myself Enough’

Kanye West made his return to Paris Fashion Week on Monday, where he gave some insight into his creative process when creating fashion. He also revealed that he is no longer making merch.

Ahead of the presentation for the Yeezy Season 8, West spoke with journalists regarding the collection. He took the opportunity to address his previous comments regarding t-shirt’s being a reluctant entry point into the fashion world.

“I stopped doing merch, like, four months ago, and then we started working on the opera because I wasn’t pushing myself enough,” West revealed Monday, according to Highsnobiety.

“I remember when I first started in fashion, and we did the first Kanye collections, everyone kept saying, ‘Just do a t-shirt, The Row started with a t-shirt’ because they had to do this celebrity comparison. And we fought to not do t-shirts, and then I looked up, and I was only doing t-shirts. So we stopped, and we started focusing on changing, making new shapes,” West said, as he recalled instances where he grossed over a million dollars a night on merch alone.

West also told journalists at the event that he is experimenting with Yeezy Season 8, looking for innovative ways to deliver the luxury brand.

“The wool will be from the sheep on my ranch,” he said before adding that he and his team are in the process of finding “different ways to approach things.”