Please join our homies from Loud & Obnoxious for the 2-Year Anniversary Sale and Celebration today.
Congratulations guys. Hit the link above for more information about the sale.
After months of speculation, speak previews, rumours and even early knock-off versions appearing on a certain online auction site, the collaboration between Nike Sportswear and Kanye West, the Air Yeezy, finally has some solid release information. Hypebeast went straight to the source and posted the official press release from Nike, which can be seen in full below. The information has been confirmed by Kanye himself on his blog.
Here’s the release info:
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/Black version, and in June with the final Net/Net color way.
Annoyingly, that does indicate that the grey/orange version didn’t make it beyond the sample stage.
The full press release:
Nike Sportswear and Grammy award winning recording artist Kanye West present the highly anticipated Nike Air Yeezy sneaker in Spring 2009.
The shoe, which takes 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. This creative partnership of Smith and West’s talents as designers yielded a unique Nike Sportswear sneaker worth the wait. “Kanye is a truly creative talent,” said Smith. “He’s a natural designer—partnerships like this always enhance the creative experience and the end product.” West agrees that the partnership with Nike has been exciting. “Nike is such an important brand to me,” said West. “Whether you are on the court, in the street, in the club, at school, Nike represents excellence, the standard in design. Growing up, we looked forward to the release of new Nike’s the way we would an album by our favorite artist. So the opportunity to collaborate on a design with Mark Smith and Nike Design has been a dream come true, and a great experience.”
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 shoe.
The creative process of the Air Yeezy began with the discussion around ideas and inspirations. The shoe 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.
A careful balance was sought, each time new elements were added, with existing elements being taken away – a design process Smith refers to as “reductionism”. “Nike shoes need to function and always be innovative,” said Smith. “So the first thing we did was to make sure the design process that Kanye and Nike Design went through, mirrored that of our athletes.” “I’ve been designing Nike’s in my sketch pad since the fourth grade,” said West. “So to say I’ve been prepared for this would be an understatement. The really fun and challenging part for me was learning about Nike’s design process, learning more about fabrics and functions and colorways, and all of the details that go into designing a shoe of this quality.”
Following the fabled tradition of Nike’s design process, West and Smith went through a series of one-on-one design sessions. At Nike the ultimate test is one of performance, where the design meets the athlete’s movements. “Kanye could wear and perform in these shoes and really identify how we could make the shoes perform better.” Supplanting center court with center stage, West provided critical feedback on how the shoe performed throughout the course of his 2-3 hour performance sets, where the first prototypes of the Nike Air Yeezy were seen outside of Nike’s World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR.
*THE NIKE AIR YEEZY: NEW SCHOOL OF COMFORT.*
Born from Kanye West’s creative passion, built with Nike design and performance innovation, The Air 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 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. Equipped with debossed ankle collar pods for added support and protection, extra-thick sock liners, a forefoot support strap, original functional tension lace loops, and Phylon tooling taken from the 1987 Nike Air Assault for added performance and comfort—all developed and integrated with one goal in mind: to keep Kanye on lock down in cushioned comfort during his performances during his many notoriously strenuous artistic live performances.
These performance attributes have been meticulously wrapped in premium full grain leather uppers and adorned with original design details that are uniquely Kanye and identifiably Nike. The remastered Nike Air Assault outsole is treated to glow-in-the-dark properties and will illuminate when the light is low. The forefoot support strap is premium grade patent leather and is of no-stitch construction. Clean seams are used throughout except for a premium suede toe wrap feature with visible stitch detail. 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 will release 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/ Black version, and in June with the final Net/Net color way.
5&A Dime presents their dedicated online channel: 5Dtv, which will be the new video blog with features on brands, events, and San Diego life. In celebration of the premiere, 5&A Dime is offering a 30% discount for online purchases. Use promotional code “5DTV” at checkout to apply the discount.
5&A Dime will also be hosting a meet-and-greet signing session with SoReal Cru on Sunday February 15th at the shop. SoReal Cru were the first runner-ups on America’s Best Dance Crew Season 2. After the signing, 5&A Dime and SoReal Cru will be at the House of Blues San Diego for Club Massive: President’s Day 2009. Hit the jump for the flyers and links.
“It appears that an inspired-by version of the Official Shoes of Wired’s Gadget Lab, the Nike McFly 2015’s, will be made available by the end of July and will be renamed as the Nike Hyperdunks. I know what you’re thinking (Chicken, McFly!), but get a hold of yourself. They won’t include the awesome air-pressurized auto-lacing mechanism from Back to the Future II.
Instead, the shoes will include so-called ‘Flywire technology,’ which is really PR-speak for the latest and greatest of ultra light materials. They sport the same high-ankle boot style of the original movie, and will be available in late July.
But while it’s cool to know that a version of the shoes will become available, there’s one thing about this development that’s a bit bothersome: Kobe Bryant is the main spokesman for the sneaks.
Kobe is not only one the most hated players in basketball, but someone who has been described by various people as ’shady,’ ‘unprofessional,’ and ’selfish.’ Why would they want to weigh down the possible awesomeness of these shoes with bad karma? Bryant already wore a few pairs of the shoes in a game during the NBA Finals, and big surprise, lost the championship.
Admittedly, we’re a bit possessive of the McFly shoe and only want to see it in its ideal future form. And yes, Kobe has actually redeemed himself as a person and a player in recent years. Perhaps, having the similar design of the shoe available now might inspire a gifted DIY’er to create the self-lacing mechanism to finally create the shoes as they were meant to be”
While not technically Skateboarding related, chalk this up as a very exciting development in the shoe industry all together.
At the Grammy’s Kanye shined with his performance featuring Daft Punk, a moving rendition of ‘Hey Mama’, and scooped up a few awards. However, sneakerheads were all looking for one thing: his shoes. Well, as is shown in the following pictures, Kanye was wearing some Nike’s no one has yet to see. When asked about his ensemble, and in particular his shoes, he said: “I had on a pair of Nikes too, but I can’t talk about those because they’re not out yet.”
We do know a few things. First off, the swoosh appears to be lasered into the shoe, it also features an “Air Flight Revolution outsole, and tongue and ankle shaped similar to the Air Force V.” (Via nicekicks)
Check the link for more pics, and let the speculation begin.
Word on the street is that there is another nike x espo collabo happening behind the scenes, although they aren’t quite as nice as the original espo’s, they are nice non the less.From hypebeast-”Legendary artist ESPO is allegedly at it again with Nike as news and pictures have surfaced regarding a collaborative effort on a Nike Trainer Dunk Free. Taking cues from the revolutionary Air Force 2 done by ESPO back in 2004, the Trainer Dunk Free incorporates clear side panels and toebox.”
MAJOR presents their first official collaboration with adidas Remix group, the EQT B-Ball Hi MAJOR edition.
Incorporating some of their favorite design cues from shoes in our cherished collections, MAJOR EQT B-Ball Hi is both a tribute to our favorite sneaker, Jordan XI, and our city, Washington DC.
Global warfare has started, and these are the first looks at Nike’s jump into the snowboarding industry. The next best thing to attack your local snowpark… hypebeasts. More info from SouthoftheNorth…
“Say what you will about Nike but the know how to put enough R&D into a product that they get it right. Coming out of SIA, Nike drops boots inspired buy the legendary Nike Air Force 1. No word yet on street dates or color ways. Rumored to be dropping in August through October: four mens models and three womens. Will they take off like Nike SB? Time will tell. But, it’s safe to say they are, at minimum, an even money bet. Translation: the sky is the limit for Nike Snowboarding…”
Nike has launched what is thought to believe an archive about Dunks and who knows what else. They usually out source pretty slick web designs and tech so will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Tim Weissberg
