Kai Cenat’s new direction

One month after the harsh online reaction to his video about mental health and desire to create, livestreaming sensation Kai Cenat has broken his silence on social media. This time, he shared another video that seems to suggest he is quitting streaming for good - and that he’s setting his sights on fashion instead, announcing a new fashion line called Vivet.

The pivot may seem sudden, but longtime fans have been following a series of recent events in his life that may have led him to this rebrand. He says a trip he took to Japan left him feeling inspired and made him want to explore the world of fashion. In late December, he went through a breakup that made headlines and seems to have left an impact. And then there was also the disaster that was the Streamer Awards, which certainly would’ve had all of us questioning our life choices if we had the misfortune of attending. I wrote about that here. It was there that he confronted Dan Clancy, the CEO of Twitch, over his remarks that Kai didn’t deserve to be on the Mount Rushmore of streamers. He recently shared footage of the encounter which caused people to remark on Kai’s ego, calling it ‘meaningless drama’.

Beyond these examples, though, Kai shared some pretty deep reflections in his most recent video, and not only is it shedding light on why he’s choosing to walk a different path, but why he’s recently called on other streamers to diversify themselves and their skillsets, too.

“I wanna be able to learn the fabric, where I can get it from, everything. I plan to learn, like everything, and not just jump into design,” Kai said during a trip to Italy, where he spent weeks learning more about fashion and sought the help of experts to launch his new fashion brand, Vivet.

During his time there, he took sewing classes and met with Law Roach, who gave him some sound advice:

“The biggest thing about being successful is that you can’t have no fear…being nervous and all that, that sh-t is human, but no fear,” Law prescribed. “If you believe that this is going to be successful, it’s going to be successful. But you can’t have no fear. You can’t go into it like, ‘Oh, I’m doubting this’ or ‘this might not work.’ If you feel it strongly and passionately about it in your heart, then that’s what you do.”

But Law’s advice is in stark contrast to what Kai revealed to his mom, who was a constant presence in his streams, about what he’s experiencing emotionally amid all the changes.

“A lot of times I am boxed into this box of being a streamer. This is one of the first times I’m gonna display something out of my primary category.”

In addition to feeling boxed in, he described experiencing a great deal of self-doubt, and had this to say about his mental health:

“I’m not even depressed, I’m not sad, I’m just having a lot of self-doubt because I’m stepping back from what I’m primarily known for which is content creation and pursuing another goal.”

Over on X, the reactions to this raw and vulnerable conversation seems to have mustered up the same kind of negative response the initial video about his mental health did. Some called it ‘next level cringe’, while others remarked that he’s ‘going through it’. This user’s response suggests Kai is not a ‘real’ man, while this person thought it would be appropriate to question where his father is.

Elsewhere on social media, people seem to think that cutting his dreadlocks is the reason for his new way forward – a theory that’s not actually too farfetched for people who understand the spiritual affiliation with not only locking one’s hair, but the rebirth and new beginnings associated with the removal of them.

Overall, there’s a lot at play here. Kai is arguably the most successful streamer in the world. He was the first and only Twitch user to ever amass 20 million followers on the platform. He is the gold standard for what success as a streamer can look like. But what he’s telling us, the audience, and other streamers is that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, it’s not what makes him happy and that there’s more to life than being on camera. But at the same time, he’s telling us that through a camera. On YouTube. So what does that mean?

A few years ago, famous YouTube personalities started migrating from the platform in favour of network and cable TV. Think Lilly Singh transitioning from the platform in 2019 after landing a late-night show with NBC. But despite her high hopes for success similar to what she experienced on YouTube, the show only aired for two years on network television. Since then, she (and countless others) went on to share all the reasons the show didn’t work.

Then there’s Hannah Hart, who rose to virality in the early days of YouTube and got some work with Food Network, but that seems to have fizzled out and she now streams on Twitch. And former one-woman-show Liza Koshy stepped back from YouTube a few years ago, did some red carpet work with Vogue, and most recently appeared in some hit Netflix shows, including K-Pop Demon Hunters.

The case for whether you can experience success as a former streamer isn’t black and white. And I think the reason for the mixed results stems from the same thing we’ve seen with influencers - what works for your core audience on your core platform doesn’t always translate well outside of that environment.

If that is in fact the case, what does Kai have in store for him? Leaving content creation and streaming and walking into the world of fashion is about as sharp a turn as any, even with the capital and contacts he has access to. I mean, it’s not everyday you get a meeting with Law Roach. In Italy of all places.

Regardless of what results his efforts will yield, Kai seems to truly be putting effort into becoming a better, more well-rounded person. In his warning to other streamers, he said he’s shifting his focus to becoming healthier, more disciplined and productive. And he suggests that the lifestyle of a streamer doesn’t quite allow for that. And that makes sense. When the priority is content, views and followers, there is a cost.

On his ‘secret’ YouTube page, he shared that he’s been dedicating 20 minutes each day in order to become a better speaker. And despite getting laughed at online for having to stop frequently to look up the definition of words, he earned huge points and an honorary shoutout from Merriam-Webster.

What I’m noticing about Lilly Singh and Kai Cenat is that they moved up the ranks of YouTube and Twitch quickly. And there are still traces of love for them on their home platforms. Both Lilly and Kai, shifted focus away from the very thing that gave them a fanbase, and both experienced a change of heart. But the chilly reception to that amplifies Kai’s point about feeling boxed in. If the only time he is loved and celebrated is when he fulfills his role as a content creator, is he really living for himself? And if Lilly can’t take her talents to network television, is the expectation that she just continues doing skits until she’s ready to retire?

This is the side of streaming we don’t often see. So many people called him confronting the Twitch CEO as petty, but I can’t say I wouldn’t feel slighted after making history on someone’s platform only to not be considered one of the greats, even if it is for a hypothetical Mount Rushmore. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason he’s now pushing out content on YouTube was to make a point. I don’t fault him for that. YouTube was Twitch before Twitch existed. In fact, YouTube was pretty much every other video streaming or publishing platform we know and love and more importantly – use – today, before they came to be. And since its creation, we’ve seen a lot of interesting cycles in user behaviour.

In the years to come, there will be a new version of YouTube, kind of like what we saw with TikTok and how it replaced Vine. Instagram could very well become the platform most associated with boomers, just like Facebook was. And though Twitch seems generations away from me, something’s going to take the place of that, too. It’s all a cycle.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have concerns over how far people will go in their pursuit of the kind of success Kai has had, only to be let down by all they’ve given up in their journey, including their sense of self. But I think the lesson Kai is learning – and teaching us through the process – is one we can all use, and it’s the importance of not attaching ourselves to things. Not caging ourselves in. Not being typecast. But also, that life really does begin at the edge of our comfort zone. And I’m just hoping that he’s amassed enough capital and enough contacts to survive the fallout in case this doesn’t all go according to plan.