Ye wore Wave Runner samples all through 2017. Everyone else waited on a pre-order.

On 22 Sep 2017 Ye walked out in a pair of Wave Runners nobody had seen: lighter greys, a muted green, neon orange on the midsole and a gum outsole. Clint Brewer’s photo ran on Hypebeast two days later. At that point nobody even had the regular pair. The only Wave Runner on sale was a pre-order, and it wasn’t shipping until November.

Sneaker Freaker still calls it Ye’s ultimate sneaker, and puts it alongside the New Balance 990 and Raf Simons’s Ozweego in the chunky-shoe wave. Through the second half of 2017, the people who’d paid for one were waiting, and Ye was wearing versions of it that weren’t on any release list.

Pre-orders in August, shipping in November

The 700 had been on Ye since January 2017 and on the Season 5 runway since February. On 12 Aug 2017 Yeezy Supply finally gave it a name, Wave Runner 700, and opened pre-orders in one colourway: grey, chalk white and core black. That’s the one that’d ship.

Sneaker Freaker remembered how the hype ran. It was trash in month one, and “need on-foot pics” in month two. By release day everyone was asking who had the plug.

Green, high-cut, and reflective black

A sand and green sample had already surfaced over the summer, and the September pair was new again. Hypebeast also caught him in a high-cut version. Then in November he stepped out with Kim Kardashian in black and ash grey. The upper had reflective 3M and a worn-in look. Hypebeast said there wasn’t any confirmation if, or when, it would come out.

Not every sample was real. A navy, red and cream pair that circulated in August turned out to be fake.

The pre-order pairs shipped in November 2017, and the Wave Runner got a wide release on 15 Sep 2018. By then Ye had been wearing one for 20 months.