Nike Air Yeezy 'Blink'
Colorway: Black/Black · Style code: 366164-003 · Release date: April 4, 2009 · Price: $3559 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Air Yeezy 'Zen' (366164-002) · Nike Air Yeezy 'Net' (366164-111)
The Air Yeezy was the first shoe Nike built for a musician rather than an athlete, and its public debut came before the product existed: Kanye West performed at the 2008 Grammy Awards in an unreleased black sample, which was most of the marketing the project ever needed. Mark Smith led the design, with Nathan Van Hook involved later, and the result borrowed the visual language of Nike's basketball archive (a forefoot strap, a moulded heel counter, a build far heavier than anything the lifestyle side was making at the time) without being a retro of anything. Three colourways followed in 2009 at the same price. This one, black on black with pink working through the lining, the lace-lock and the heel branding, is the darkest of the three and the closest to the sample worn on that Grammys stage. Repeated Y motifs run across the panels in tonal relief, and the outsole glows in the dark. All three arrived in small numbers through a handful of accounts, and the line ran to only one more model before West left for adidas, which is why the first Air Yeezy is treated as a closed set rather than a franchise.