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.