Nike Air Yeezy

Nike Air yeezy, which takes Kanye West’s nickname Yeezy, draws upon the innovations from Nike’s rich sporting history and fuses them with original lines, materials, and design elements that reflect West’s unique style.
The Air Yeezy was developed from a strong relationship between West and Nike. Partnering with Nike Creative Director, Mark Smith, Kanye was taken through the product creation process, the same way athletes have with Nike Design for the past 37 years. From the start, West and Nike’s shared vision was clear: to create a modern classic. An original Nike footwear style that reflects elements of Nike’s sporting past, and remixes them with Nike innovation to deliver a unique shoes.
The creative process of the Air Yeezy shoes began with the discussion around ideas and inspirations. The shoes began to take shape through a series of drawings and samples, each pulling inspiration and reference from some of Nike’s iconic innovations and rich design history, across both Basketball and Sportswear styles.
The Air Yeezys: .Born from Kanye West’s creative passion, built with Nike design and performance innovation, The Nike Yeezy was fine-tuned on stages around the globe, challenging convention by remixing the past to create something uniquely new, as only Nike Sportswear can. West is known for his non-stop energy both on the stage and off so the Air Yeezy shoes had to support and sustain West from start to finish. An almost obsessive focus was put on delivering supreme comfort throughout the development of the shoe. Emblazoned across the Air Yeezy is an exclusive “Y” repeat pattern, as either a debossed or lasered detail, which takes inspiration from the Jordan brands iconic Elephant print material. This graphic treatment was developed by West and Smith to pay tribute not only to the name of the shoe and it’s co-creator, but also to the various moments in history that spurred West’s initial inspiration for the Nike Air Yeezy.
The Nike Air Yeezy was released in Spring 2009. Three colorways will be available. The first in April 2009 will be the Zen Grey/LT Charcoal color way, followed this will be followed in May by a Black/ Pink version, and in June with the final Net/Net color way. As part of this partnership, Nike will make a donation to the Kanye West Foundation.