Kyrie Irving had his own Nike shoe and still walked in wearing Air Yeezy 2s

Kyrie Irving came up the tunnel at American Airlines Center before the Celtics played Dallas on 24 Nov 2018 in a black cap, a navy crewneck and khaki cargos. The shoes did the talking: grey high-tops with a strap over the laces, a moulded heel and a glow sole. It’s the Nike Air Yeezy 2 in Pure Platinum, six years after it came out.

He didn’t need to wear anyone else’s shoe. Kyrie had his own Nike signature line by then, the Kyrie 5 that season. He kept reaching for Ye’s anyway. Nice Kicks logged every pair he wore to games that year, and the Air Yeezy 2 turns up more than once. It’s the Black/Solar Red into Portland’s Moda Center on 11 Nov 2018. The Solar Red came back into TD Garden on 16 Jan 2019, with a tan hoodie, camo trousers and a blue tote.

Two colourways, June 2012

The Air Yeezy 2 dropped on 9 Jun 2012 in exactly two colourways, Wolf Grey/Pure Platinum and Black/Solar Red, Sneaker News and Nice Kicks reported at the time. They’re the pair Kyrie rotated between. Nice Kicks put it plainly in May 2019: he’d often worn the Solar Red before games that season, and now and then the Pure Platinum.

It found its way into his own shoes too. Talking about the Kyrie 6 later that year, he told Nice Kicks he’d “paid respect to old Yeezys, old Air Jordan 11s, old Nike SBs.”

Courtside, July 2022

Ten years after release, he was still wearing them. On 7 Jul 2022 Kyrie sat courtside at Crypto.com Arena for the Sparks against the Seattle Storm. SI’s Kicks On SI reported he was in the Air Yeezy 2 Pure Platinum again. Getty’s photos from that night catch him in a bucket hat and a white long sleeve, but they don’t reach his feet.

The pair that came up the tunnel in Dallas was a decade old by then. It hadn’t left the rotation.