Ye’s first shoe after adidas was a $200 sock. Then it cost $20.

The first shoe Ye made without adidas had no laces, no tongue and barely an upper. The YZY Pods went up for pre-order on the Yeezy webstore on 15 Dec 2023. It’s a black stretch-knit sock that reaches mid-shin, on a thin rubber sole, and it cost $200, Hypebeast reported. There wasn’t a shipping date.

It was his first footwear since adidas dropped him in October 2022, and it came from yeezy.com alone, with no sneaker brand behind it. Within two months, the same shoe cost $20.

Sizes 1, 2 and 3

There’s one colour and there are three sizes. A 1 covers feet under a US 6, a 2 runs US 7 to 9.5, and a 3 runs US 10 to 13. yeezy.com’s data filed the black as YZYPODS_BLK, and its on-leg shot shows how far up the knit runs. The site promised delivery “within four weeks”, Vibe reported.

A patent in May

Nobody who’d been watching Ye’s feet in 2023 was surprised. He’d spent the year in sock-like shoes, and sometimes just socks. In May his company, Mascotte Holdings, applied for a US patent covering “socks” and “socks with leather soles”, Hypebeast reported.

One clip, one word

He launched them properly on 28 Dec 2023, on Instagram: a clip of a Pod unfolding and turning, captioned “Yeezy.com”. Vibe thought the sole looked a little like the Yeezy 500’s. Erykah Badu commented a fire emoji, and Ye reposted it. The Pods weren’t the only thing on offer: the same site was taking pre-orders for Vultures in digital, CD and vinyl, with tees, pants and shorts alongside, Revolt reported.

$200 to $20

On 12 Feb 2024 the price came down to $20, Complex reported, and anyone who’d paid $200 could email for $180 back. The shoe didn’t change. Only the number did.

The pre-order crowd got their Pods first and most of their money back later. Everyone else just paid $20.