Ye wore the Air Yeezy 2 for almost 16 months before Nike sold a pair

Ye played the villain. In The Black Mamba, Robert Rodriguez’s short film for Nike with Kobe Bryant, he’s The Boss. In the final face-off he’s wearing a shoe nobody had seen: a black Air Yeezy 2. Nike premiered the film at NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles on 19 Feb 2011.

It was the start of a long tease. Ye wore Air Yeezy 2 samples on some of the biggest stages of 2011, and Nike didn’t release the shoe until 9 Jun 2012.

Coachella, the VMAs, Victoria’s Secret

He didn’t hide them. Ye closed Coachella on 17 Apr 2011 in a black pair, and Sneaker News picked out the details from the photos. There’s a croc-like texture on the upper, a moulded heel and a forefoot strap, with his logo on the tongue and a mint green outsole like the first Air Yeezy’s.

On 28 Aug 2011 he performed Otis with Jay-Z at the MTV VMAs in Los Angeles in a grey pair. He kept them on to accept Best Collaboration with Katy Perry. Sneaker News called the colour Zen Grey-like. It’d become the Pure Platinum.

In November he’d switched to black and pink, on stage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York. It was his third New York show in a row, after back-to-back Watch the Throne nights at Madison Square Garden.

Kobe’s tongue, Agassi’s sole

Nice Kicks credits Nike designer Nathan VanHook, working with Ye. The sole came off the Air Tech Challenge II, Andre Agassi’s tennis shoe, and the Torch tongue came from the Kobe V. The padding and height were cut down so it’d sit closer on Ye’s foot when he performed. The strap stayed.

June 2012, then the Red October

When it finally came out, it was in Pure Platinum and Black/Solar Red, and there weren’t many: small numbers, at select shops. Nike listed the grey as wolf grey/pure platinum, with watermelon on the inside.

There was one more. On 9 Feb 2014, after Ye had moved to adidas, Nike dropped an all-red Air Yeezy 2 online with a single tweet. It sold out in 11 minutes, and that’s where Ye’s run at Nike ended.