"The Life of Pablo" fake T-shirts approved by Kanye

On February 11, during the presentation of Yeezy Season 3, Kanye West showed up with a long-sleeved t-shirt which generated interest and clamour from fans around the world. It was a burgundy-colored jersey with the words "I feel like Pablo" on the chest and "Ultralight Beam" on the back.

The t-shirt has been worn by a number of young influencers since, including Ian Connor and Kylie Jenner, and were created in collaboration with artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt, a gallerist and owner of a record label based in LA.

After having been released in limited quantities on Kanye's website - with the need of a password to buy them - last week the rapper announced he was about to open a pop-up store in New York for only three days, where fans could have finally bought the t-shirt: the crowd went crazy and Highsnobiety's website estimated that more than 3,000 people showed at to the pop-up to get the jersey.

In this context the character of Austin Butts aka Asspizza comes out. This 17-year old boy created, along with his friend Jonah Levine, a merchandising of The Life of Pablo, getting a stencil and printing the graphics on, as he defined them "a bunch of shirts and shit”.

Taking a step back, Austin Butts has always been a young entrepreneur. In 2014 he and his friend started stealing toys - especially Pokémon cards and My Little Pony - from Toys R Us and sold them on eBay, spending the money they earned in brands such as Rick Owens and Supreme. Austin is currently creating clothes for his eponymous label Asspizza (worn by Wiz Khalifa) worked with Spaghetti Boys and the next month will release his first collaboration with Nike. If this was not enough, in 2015 he sold a plain white t-shirt with a small logo for $ 60 a piece, deceiving customers who thought it was the work of a designer named Marcel Zago.

Obviously, his best-known work is the one that occurred last week at Kanye's pop-up store, where Virgil Abloh and Heron Preston remained so impressed by his creations that decided to put them on display in the pop-up store next to the legit t-shirts. Cali was also very enthusiastic, and Austin commented “he came where we were exposing and he loved it, so I gave him a shirt and everything".

On the other hand, not everyone was so impressed. Many were amazed by how a fake product could appeal even to Kanye's gang, but Austin said "it’s more real than the real ones" and "they are more rare than those sold in the store, because 10,000 children have been waiting in line for those and only a hundred people have had the 'fakes', that have been printed by kids“.

His statement “it’s more real than the real ones" could have a glimpse of truth: well-known fashion retailer - named Solestreetsneakerco - who went to the pop-up store with the intention of buying and selling the major number of products, told Fashionista "These graphics are printed on Gildan t-shirts. There are no tags on the inside of the shirt that says Yeezy merch or Kanye… It'is a $4 T-shirt with screen-printing on it. But again, anything this man touches, the demand is so real".

For sure we can't contradict Solestreetsneakereco's words, but just so you know: Kanye has made more than $ 1 million in just two days...