Since its founding, Nike has closely followed the ethos that form always follows function. When it was announced that they would partner with Kanye West on the Air Yeezy, the project was noted as their first non-athlete collaboration. Eventually, the Air Yeezy would further distinguish itself among some of the most anticipated and sought after sneaker releases of all time.
The initial buzz for the Air Yeezy began during Kanye’s 2008 Glow In The Dark Tour where he was first spotted wearing prototypes featuring the distinctive glow-in-the-dark soles. Sneaker blogs quickly devolved into a frenzy and social media channels built up an endless stream of speculation and lust for the wildly unattainable shoe. The Air Yeezy was eventually released in extremely limited quantities to a short list of top-tier concept boutiques and seeded to an even shorter list of Nike friends.
In anticipation of the Air Yeezy release, kids camped outside for days with the hopes of scoring a pair. Considering the significance of the release, not to mention being sucked into the hype ourselves, 12ozProphet Collective was especially honored to be chosen by Nike to photograph the teaser shots and PR/Editorial photos for the global product announcement and media outreach. The images were quickly picked up and syndicated by the global style media and shared, liked and tweeted by the masses; easily propelling the Air Yeezy into the most talked about fashion story of the year.
