Friday, June 1, 2012

Walk in Kanye's shoes - but not if your feet are a different shape: How rapper's Nike Air Yeezy II was tailored to his own foot


Kanye West has designed a range of Nike sneakers for people with similarly 'slim' feet to those of the musician himself.

The 34-year-old's second collaboration with the sporting brand, titled The Nike Air Yeezy II, is described as a 'shoe slimmer than the original by tailoring it to Kanye West's foot.'

The limited-edition new kicks, which go on sale in the U.S. on June 9, also feature a molded spiked rear that is said to be 'reptilian-inspired'.

The highly-anticipated product, which will no doubt attract lengthy queues of hard-core sneaker fans across the U.S. on the day of its release, will retail for $250.

The price will of course be much higher once the shoes are snapped up and resold by savvy shoppers at a later date.

The new design will be available in various colours, such as the black and 'solar red' version that the musician wore during his performance at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York last November.

The shoes were first spotted even earlier than that, however.

He unveiled the grey 'Platinum' version at last year's MTV Video Music Awards which were held in Los Angeles in August.

No matter the colour, the design features hand-skived anaconda-textured leather panels that have been stamped with the trademark Nike swoosh logo.

The design was inspired by the basketball shoes of the late Eighties, much the same as the original limited-edition Nike Air Yeezy, which was released and swiftly sold out in April of 2009.
But the newer version has been given several updates in addition to the 'slimmer' molding.

A large strap with 'scaled-down' spikes was developed for the new shoe 'to offer a greater sense of symmetry and lock down', according to Nikeinc.com.

Also, 'unnecessary' padding that featured in the original Yeezy make has been removed and its collar was lowered to allow more movement.

The description added that 'fit was essential to the design'.

A loop strap features hieroglyphics that read 'YZY' which is of course an abbreviation of Yeezy.

The shoe will be available in both the 'Platinum' colour, which features orange lining on the upper section and a green sole that glows in the dark, and a black version that features pink lining and the same glow-in-the-dark sole.

Several of the musician's friends have already been spotted wearing the new design.

Jay Z, who collaborated with him on last year's Watch The Throne album, was spotted wearing the 'Platinum' version during a press event in Philadelphia earlier this month.

LeBron James, a star NBA basketball player for the Miami Heat, wore the black version to a press conference on May 6.

It is not the first company to have collaborated with the musician on a pair of shoes.
Mr West released a limited-edition collaboration with luxury brand Louis Vuitton in 2009, which retailed for around $1,000 per pair.

It was a much cheaper product than the Giuseppe Zanotti collaboration he showed at Paris Fashion Week in 2011 as part of his Dw By Kanye collection.

They were spotted on sale in January of this year priced at a hefty $5,887 per pair.


By KRISTIE LAU

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