Nike Air Yeezy

The Nike Air Yeezy is an official sneaker collaboration project between Nike and Kanye West.

Notable as the shoe brand's first non-athlete full collaboration, the project has released two editions: the "Air Yeezy" (2009) and the "Air Yeezy II" (2012 and 2014).

The Nike Air Yeezy, was developed from 2007 to 2009 by rapper Kanye West and Nike Creative Director Mark Smith. Despite later qualms with Nike, Kanye has spoken very highly of Smith as both a collaborator and designer, and Smith has said the same of Kanye, stating that he is "a truly creative talent" and a "natural designer."

The design process for the Nike Air Yeezy was long and features dozens of sample colorways and silhouettes. The early prototype of the Air Yeezy had many features that greatly differ from the release version of the shoe. instance, the midsole and outsole featured what the shoe’s creators referred to as "Death Star" tooling, named for the large spherical shape on the back half of the midsole. The outsole also featured the "Y-print" that was used on the toebox of the three release versions. Also, on the very early prototypes, the shoe used LED lights implanted in the outsole, but after issues with low battery life and cost evaluation, production staff at Nike came to the conclusion that phosphorescent rubber would be used in place of the LED lights.

While several color and wear test samples of the Nike Air Yeezy were made, some are more widely known and discussed than others. West wore an all black suede pair during his 2008 Grammy Awards performance of "Stronger" and "Hey Mama." At the time, the public was completely unaware that a collaboration between Nike and Kanye West was in the works, and in fact, it wasn’t until several hours after the performance that news media even knew that Kanye had a hand in designing the model he was wearing. This sample was later sold via an online charity auction to benefit the patients of the Doernbecher children’s hospital alongside a never before seen prototype of the Nike Air Yeezy featuring the tooling used on the popular Air Jordan VI. Mark Smith actually stated that Kanye wanted to use Jordan tooling on the Air Yeezy, but that Nike would not allow it, and therefore, before the date of the auction, Kanye was completely unaware that the "Jordan VI" Nike Air Yeezy sample even existed. The other sample that was met with much discussion among fans of the shoe was the "Fire Red" Nike Air Yeezy, which was named for the bright red color on the midsole. This colorway was first seen on Kanye’s feet during the "Glow in the Dark" Tour and has been seen worn by the rapper several times since. According to industry rumors, this colorway was strongly considered for release alongside the other 3 release colorways, but was scrapped at the last minute.

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