Kanye West‘s former co-designer, best known for his hand in crafting the bear mascot seen on three of Yeezy’s albums has received a big thank you from Kim Kardashian.
On Friday (December 8) the reality television star took to her Instagram Stories where she thanked Bobby Naugle, who helped design the College Dropout character, often referred to as the Dropout Bear.
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“Bobby Naugle, who designed the college dropout bear in 2003 and worked on the tours in the early years handling the merch — reached out to me in 2022 because he wanted to gift North some of the original merch that he helped produce,” she wrote, accompanied by a photo of herself and Naugle. “He asked for nothing in return.”
“We stayed in touch since then,” she continued. “And after being approached by a few collectors and auction houses regarding other collectables he owned from 2003-2005, which included first-hand sketches and Kanye’s original personal pink RL polo, Bobby felt it [would] be most appropriate to give them to our kids, again, asking for nothing in return.”
Kanye West Dropout Bear designer gets thanks from Kim Kardashian for gifting rare merch https://t.co/3Yh0bOWXIApic.twitter.com/9zl3TZazoQ
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) December 10, 2023
The SKIMS founder concluded: “I would like to publicly thank Bobby for his kindness and generosity (it’s very rare in this industry), when he could have easily made a lot of money from selling off these items instead.”
Kardashian also shared a story that included a black graphic T-shirt, featuring a Chicago skyline with an overlay reading “KanyeWest.”
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Back in October, Ye’s eldest daughter, North West, 10, paid tribute to her father’s early career when she rocked the bear mascot in celebration of Halloween.
In a video that recently surfaced on TikTok, North is seen rocking a rendition of the mascot that appeared on the cover of Ye’s debut album, The College Dropout (2004) and once more on West’s sophomore LP Late Registration. In the clip, she can be seen flexing her moves with a version of Estelle’s Ye-featuring “American Boy” — a Graduation-era hit — playing in the background.
In music news, West and Ty Dolla $ign recently made waves when they announced they were combining forces for a joint album.
On Friday (December 8), Ty took to Instagram where he posted a handwritten note featuring the project’s purported 16-song tracklist. Included on the list were the already released “Vultures” featuring Bump J as well as the shelved fan favorite “New Body.”
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Next to the list is a doodle of the double-headed eagle emblem that Ye has been donning of late. Many have interpreted the logo as an alteration of the German coat of arms, which, it is worth noting, was used by Nazi Germany until 1935 — a tough-to-ignore detail given the mogul’s recent fall from grace for his overtly anti-Semitic remarks.
