In July 2017, a video circulated showing Jabari Shelton, known as A$AP Bari, entering a hotel room where a nude woman was sleeping. In the footage, Bari accused her of having sex with his assistant, demanded sexual acts, exposed her body to roughly ten members of the A$AP Mob, followed her into a bathroom while she pleaded with him to stop, and allegedly forced her out of the room naked. The woman contacted the hotel manager and police. Bari initially called the video fake on Twitter, then reframed the encounter as an incident between friends that had been resolved privately. The episode nevertheless became a defining scandal for Vlone, the Harlem streetwear label Bari had co-founded with A$AP K in late 2011 and developed with designer Edison Chen of CLOT. Nike terminated its Vlone partnership on July 31, 2017, shortly after the footage emerged, effectively ending a major commercial relationship just as the brand was expanding from Harlem street culture into luxury-streetwear visibility and its first Paris Fashion Week runway presentation. In November 2017, the woman filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $1 million, although she later chose not to continue that case. Bari was arrested at Heathrow Airport on May 18, 2018, in connection with the incident and pleaded guilty in January 2019. He avoided imprisonment after paying the victim £2,000. The scandal continued to shadow the brand: in October 2022, Vlone announced that Bari had been fired, citing disputes with A$AP Mob affiliates, alleged attempts to take control of the label, and his continued public association with the company despite the sexual-assault controversy. The affair became a stark example of how celebrity streetwear brands could be built on communal cultural credibility yet remain vulnerable to the personal misconduct of their founders.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 2010s
The Vlone Founder’s Hotel-Room Assault Scandal and the Collapse of His Nike Partnership
A$AP Bari / Vlone / 2010s
In July 2017, a video circulated showing Jabari Shelton, known as A$AP Bari, entering a hotel room where a nude woman was sleeping. In the footage, Bari accused her of having sex with his assistant, demanded sexual acts, exposed her body to roughly ten members of the A$AP Mob, followed her into a bathroom while she pleaded with him to stop, and allegedly forced her out of the room naked. The woman contacted the hotel manager and police. Bari initially called the video fake on Twitter, then reframed the encounter as an incident between friends that had been resolved privately. The episode nevertheless became a defining scandal for Vlone, the Harlem streetwear label Bari had co-founded with A$AP K in late 2011 and developed with designer Edison Chen of CLOT. Nike terminated its Vlone partnership on July 31, 2017, shortly after the footage emerged, effectively ending a major commercial relationship just as the brand was expanding from Harlem street culture into luxury-streetwear visibility and its first Paris Fashion Week runway presentation. In November 2017, the woman filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $1 million, although she later chose not to continue that case. Bari was arrested at Heathrow Airport on May 18, 2018, in connection with the incident and pleaded guilty in January 2019. He avoided imprisonment after paying the victim £2,000. The scandal continued to shadow the brand: in October 2022, Vlone announced that Bari had been fired, citing disputes with A$AP Mob affiliates, alleged attempts to take control of the label, and his continued public association with the company despite the sexual-assault controversy. The affair became a stark example of how celebrity streetwear brands could be built on communal cultural credibility yet remain vulnerable to the personal misconduct of their founders.
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