Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG 'Pure Platinum'
Colorway: Wolf Grey/Pure Platinum · Style code: 508214-010 · Release date: June 9, 2012 · Price: $3950 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG 'Solar Red' (508214-006) · Nike Air Yeezy 2 SP 'Red October' (508214-660) · Nike Kyrie 6 By You 'Air Yeezy 2 - Solar Red' (CT1019-XXX-SOLAR) · Nike Kyrie 6 'Air Yeezy 2 - Pure Platinum' By You (CT1019-XXX-PLAT) · Nike Kyrie 6 By You 'Air Yeezy 2 - Red October' (CT1019-XXX-RED-OCT)
The second Air Yeezy moved further from Nike's basketball archive than the first. Nathan Van Hook's design gave it a ridged heel counter modelled on reptile scales, quarter panels textured like snakeskin, and an outsole lifted from the Air Tech Challenge II, a 1990 tennis shoe, rather than anything from the hardwood. Egyptian motifs run through the detailing, including a bird form on the tongue that Kanye West used repeatedly in that period's artwork. Two colourways launched together in June 2012 at $245, and this is the grey one: wolf grey across the upper with a paler platinum tone above it, and red inside the collar as the only warm note. Demand was severe enough that the release became a reference point for how far a single drop could distort a resale market. West announced his move to adidas the following year, and one further colourway appeared in 2014 after the partnership had already ended. This is effectively the last shoe of the collaboration, and its details (the scales, the tennis outsole, the strap across the forefoot) read now as a bridge to the work that came next.