Kanye West ‘Grammy Worn’ Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototypes from 2008 hit a record-breaking $1.8 million via private sale.
Let’s just take a minute to lay out how insane that is—that’s the highest publicly recorded price for a price of sneakers, nearly three times the world auction record for any pair, and the first pair of sneakers to top $1 million dollars in history.
Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you.
The sale, handled by Sotheby’s, went to sneaker investing platform RARES, which allows users to invest in sneakers by buying and trading shares in them.
Sotheby’s inaugural dedicated sneaker sale in 2019, in which a pair of Nike Waffle Shoes sold for $437,500 establishing a new auction record at the time.
Since then, the records have continually been broken. A pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s went for $560,000 in May 2020, and that same auction saw records for adidas and Louis Vuitton sneakers as well.
RARES will take over the shoes that were on offer from Ryan Chang, renowned sneaker collector and curator of @applied.arts.nyc.
“Our goal in purchasing such an iconic shoe – and a piece of history – is to increase accessibility and empower the communities that birthed sneaker culture with the tools to gain financial freedom through RARES. We look forward to working with Sotheby’s to continue to identify rare finds that will help elevate, preserve and uphold sneaker culture,” Gerome Sapp, CEO & Co-Founder of RARES, commented.
“I loved having this pair in my collection, and have always admired its significance as a cultural artifact. I’m so grateful that this iconic piece is going into good hands courtesy of Sotheby’s,” said 3 Ryan Chang, Consignor, Collector and Curator (@applied.arts.nyc).
Let’s take a closer look at the shoes, now should we? Because Kanye West changed the world of sneakers on February 10, 2008.
On that night, West performed at the 50th annual Grammy Awards, performing his songs “Hey Mama”, an ode to his now-late mother, and “Stronger”, wearing a pair of sneakers that everyone in the world quickly tried to identify.
It was clear they were Nikes from the iconic Swoosh, but what were they exactly?
They were not Air Jordans—they were Air Yeezys.
There had, of course, been rumours up to that point that Kanye would be releasing a sneaker, but Nike and Kanye collaborated to introduce their top-secret project without telling anyone, giving the world its first look at the Air Yeezy 1 without ever so much as a press release.
The shoe lit up the world, and the Air Yeezy became the shoe of the moment. It may still be the shoe of today, if Nike and Kanye had not parted ways, and the Yeezy brand moved over to Adidas in 2013, where it still sits as one of the most popular brands in modern sneaker culture, with each release eagerly awaited, creativity and innovation abound.
While Kanye’s latest are in a completely different aesthetic, the first Air Yeezy was much closer to the classic sneaker of Nike, closer to a Dunk or Jordan 1.
Even though his style has changed, the Nike Air Yeezy I and Air Yeezy II are still some of the most coveted sneakers by collectors, and are foundational to the trajectory of the Yeezy brand as we know it today.
Sotheby’s utilized external consultants to both photo-analyze the sneakers (comparing them against Kanye’s performance that evening), as well as looking at build, tagging, box and makeup to determine the sneaker’s authenticity.
According to Sotheby’s, the Grammy Air Yeezy samples were built in Nike’s lab, known as the ‘Innovation Kitchen’ at the company’s headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Creative Director Mark Smith kept the project so under wraps that he released the shoes to Kanye for the Grammys with the condition that they would be returned as soon as possible following the performance.
The shoe is made of soft black leather with perforated detailing throughout the upper and the heel overlay is branded with a tonal Swoosh. The design features the iconic Yeezy forefoot strap and signature ‘Y’ medallion lacelocks in bright pink (which were not worn by Kanye during his performance).
A custom lasered wooden box came included, which features a design and etching by the Yeezy 1 creator, Mark Smith.
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