adidas made one new 350 V2 without Ye, and he called it fake

“Anybody who loves Ye would not buy these fake Yeezys I never made these color ways,” Ye wrote on Instagram on 26 Feb 2024. adidas had unveiled the 350 V2 Steel Grey that same day.

Until then, the 350 V2s adidas sold after the split were designs from before it: pairs shelved when the deal ended, and restocks. Steel Grey was new. Hypebeast called it the colourway’s debut. Nice Kicks called it the first time adidas had used the design rights its CFO said it held. To see how it got there, you’ve got to go back two years.

February 2022: Dazzling Blue and Donda 2

Dazzling Blue went out on 26 Feb 2022 in full family sizes, on Confirmed and at Yeezy stockists. Hypebeast tied it to the Donda 2 rollout: Ye was set to play the album for the first time in Miami that week. It’s black Primeknit with a blue post-dyed monofilament stripe and SPLY-350 in black, blocked like the black and red pairs from 2016.

October 2022: the deal ends

On 25 Oct 2022 adidas ended the partnership. It stopped making Yeezy product and stopped paying Ye and his companies, with immediate effect. Pairs that hadn’t dropped yet just sat there, and Hypebeast started calling them shelved projects.

August 2023: Granite and MX Dark Salt, a year late

Granite had surfaced in 2022, a beige-grey knit with a black SPLY-350 stripe, and was expected later that year. It didn’t come out until 9 Aug 2023, on Confirmed, in adidas’s second sell-off. MX Dark Salt ran the same way. Sole Retriever had leaked pictures of its marbled knit of greys, light browns and black in August 2022, and reported it for August 2023.

adidas had started selling the leftover stock that May, and it wasn’t keeping all the money: part of it went to groups fighting discrimination and hate. By August 2023 it had pledged €110m. Its own North American pairs shipped with a blue square pin for the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, Complex reported.

February 2024: Steel Grey

Steel Grey was a light grey knit on a darker grey sole, with grey laces, insole and heel tab. The draw opened on Confirmed on 29 Feb 2024 at 10 a.m. ET, and it ran for 10 minutes.

Ye had called it fake three days earlier. More than a week after the draw, Hypebeast reported, it was still available in a full size run.