Wear Your Soles Review #8 : Kanye's Collaborations

When Kanye started to get into the music and celebrity scene, he wanted to make his own apparel and be a fashion designer.  It all began with Nike in 2007. The first Yeezy of its kind was designed and created by Mark Smith (Senior designer at Nike) and Kanye himself. On April 4, 2009, the first Nike Air Yeezy was released for the public to buy. The "Zen Grey" colourway which retailed at $215 USD immediately sold out after its release. One month later brand brought out the "Blink" colourway on May 4th of that same year. The final installment of the Air Yeezy of 2009 was the "Net" Colourway

Air Yeezy 1 "Zen Grey"

Air Yeezy 1 "Blink"

As 2012 rolled around, high profile celebrities teased the shoe by shouting it out like Macklemore who wore them during his New Years performance, then throwing them into the crowd. On May 29th, 2012 Nike announced that the Nike Air Yeezy 2 would release on June 9th of that year. The Air Yzy 2 dropped on Nike for $245 and were limited to only 5000 pairs in the world. People had the fantastic idea of reselling the shoes as they were super limited and hard to come by. As surprise by many people, Nike had dropped the all-red version of the Air Yeezy 2 dubbed the "Red October" on February 9th, 2014. Other colours such as the "Pure Platinum", "solar red" and the collaboration with "John Geiger X Lasco Golden Child" released sometime between the first Yzy 2 and "Red October". Today the all the Air Yeezys sell for upwards of $2000.

Air Yeezy 2 "Red October"

Air Yeezy 2 "Solar Red"

Kanye had originally designed a shoe with Adidas but then decided to sign with Nike. When it was time for Kanye to sign to a brand, he pushed Nike aside and went back to his Adidas roots. The reason why Kanye went to Adidas was that Nike wouldn't grant Kanye's request to receive royalties for his shoes but Adidas would give Kanye full royalties.


2015 was big for Kanye since they released "Yeezy Season 1" which was the first and only apparel collection to release during the collaboration with Adidas. As people rumoured of a shoe release to be coming soon after "Yeezy Season 1" The Adidas Yeezy Boost 750 "Light Brown" was released on Febuary 14th, 2015.  Later that year on June 27th, 2015 Kanye and Adidas released the first colourway of the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 in the "Turtle Dove" colourway. This would be one of the many 350 colourways to be released.

Adidas Yeezy Boost 750 "Light Brown"

Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 "Turtle Dove"

Kanye had many ups and downs collabing with Nike and Adidas. His Yeezy line is probably one of the most well known apparel lines around the world. Kanye has come a long way since he orginally collaborated with Adidas then signing on with Nike and now currently with Adidas.

Virgil Abloh X Nike "The Ten" Part 2 - Nike Air VaporMax + Nike Zoom Fly

Nike Air VaporMax

One of Nike's most recent releases, the Nike Air VaporMax consist of Nike original and game-changing technology, "Air" put into a plastic "Air" Bubble. Created in Beaverton, Oregon in the Nike Labs, each air bubble is made then put onto a flyknit upper. The shoe is the newest competitor to the Adidas UltraBoost. Some say this shoe is way more comfortable than the UltraBoost, but I think the shoe is less comfortable. I have to say the VaporMax are super lightweight and more flexible compared to the UltraBoost. For this installment, Virgil deconstructed the shoe like the other nine Nikes that are apart of the Nike X Off-White collaboration. The design begins with an all black canvas and a large white Nike swoosh. Next, you have a small piece of orange fabric near the top of the swoosh. On the inner part of the shoe, there is a piece of text in white that reads "Off-WhiteTM for NIKE "NIKE AIR VAPORMAX" Beaverton, Oregon USA C.2017." The material on the upper is flyknit technology. The material on the heel is a waterproof plastic. On the outside heel area, there is more text that reads "AIR".  The shoe is one of the most wanted from the collections. Being all black and easy to style, streetwear fanatics loved the way Virgil deconstructed the shoe. The retail price of this shoe is $330. In Facebook groups, the shoe is selling for upwards of $650. 

Nike Air VaporMax

Nike Zoom Fly

The Nike Zoom fly is supposedly the best running shoe ever created and makes you a better runner. The worlds best marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge wore the Nike Zoom VaporFly 4%, the predecessor to the Nike Zoom Fly during Nike's "Breaking 2" marathon. "Breaking 2" is the name of the 42.1 Km marathon created by Nike to prove that the Nike Zoom VaporFly 4% really makes world-class runners better. The 4% is the percentage that Nike found in a funded study done at the University of Colorado. The testers wore prototypes of the Nike Zoom VaporFly and ran an average of 4 percent more efficiently than they did in any other running shoe in the market.Three world renown marathon runners were selected for the event and trained for weeks to hopefully break 42.1 Km in 2 Hours. Eliud's best marathon time was 2:03:05. His time for the breaking 2 marathon was 2:00:25. Kipchoge already broke human expectations by achieving 2:03:05 but now twenty-five seconds away from 2 hours is really amazing for the progress in human growth and Nike proving they could make World-class runners better with they're shoes. 

The Nike Zoom Fly that Virgil designed has an all-white neoprene upper with a cream coloured midsole. On the midsole, in black writing reads "FOAM". A small piece of orange fabric is placed near the upper part of the Nike swoosh. The inner part of the shoe has the same writing on each shoe. The only thing that differentiates is "Off-WhiteTM for NIKE "NIKE ZOOM VAPORFLY" Beaverton, Oregon USA C.2017." The shoe comes with black, white, green and orange laces that come with every shoe. The retail price is $330. Resell on the shoe found on local markets are $550 - $650

Nike Zoom Fly