Ye’s Calabasas runner had Complex doubting it was adidas. It was the Wave Runner

Ye walked out of the Yeezy office in Calabasas in the first week of January 2017 in a grey hoodie, navy track pants and a shoe nobody could place. Grey suede, a teal panel, black waves down the side, a white sole with an orange flash, neon laces. The left and right didn’t even match.

Complex had the paparazzi shots from 5 Jan and wasn’t convinced. You “can’t see any Boost on the sole”, Brendan Dunne wrote, and there’s “not much evidence that they’re Adidas.” Hypebeast ran X17online’s clean photo the next day.

It was adidas, and it was the world’s first look at the 700. It’d ship ten months later as the Wave Runner. That’s the shoe that took Yeezy from one clean knit to a pile of overlays, and Sneaker Freaker still calls it Ye’s ultimate sneaker.

February 2017: the dad-shoe jokes start

The runner came back at the Yeezy Season 5 presentation in New York on 15 Feb 2017, on a model this time. Hypebeast called it the most talked-about thing in the room. The dad-shoe jokes weren’t far behind. Sneaker Freaker dates the shoe’s official debut to that show, not to the Calabasas photos.

48 hours with Steven Smith

Ye built it with Steven Smith, the designer behind New Balance’s 574, 997 and 1500 and Reebok’s Instapump Fury. The 350 had just made Yeezy one knitted piece. Ye came to Smith wanting old-school overlays and a busy midsole. Smith told Kanyesposts he didn’t know what Ye was asking for at first. Then they sketched it back and forth over a single weekend.

“Through 48 hours over a weekend, out of it came the Wave Runner.” Steven Smith, to Kanyesposts

August 2017: a pre-order with no warning

Yeezy Supply put it up on 12 Aug 2017 with a name at last, the Wave Runner 700, in the same grey, teal and orange Ye had worn in January. There was no announcement, and it was a pre-order: pairs didn’t ship until November. adidas restocked it in the US on 10 Mar 2018, then worldwide on 15 Sep 2018 through adidas, Yeezy Supply and a long list of stores.

The teal stayed

The 700 kept coming back for five years. It went tonal in Cream for the V2 in March 2021. Bright Blue followed a month later with an orange midsole and, as Hypebeast pointed out, the Wave Runner’s teal forefoot. It hadn’t really left. Enflame Amber came that June, and Hi-Res Red, red mesh over a maroon sole with orange and teal hits, landed in June 2022.

Complex couldn’t find any Boost in January 2017. When the shoe finally shipped, the name on it was Yeezy Boost 700.