For all of the hype built around Nike and Kanye West‘s Air Yeezy 2s, the much-coveted Red October color just came and went on Sunday.
There was almost a year of hype and genuine controversy, which began with ‘Ye’s May episode of “Saturday Night Live” and a Kim Kardashian Instagram. But after a couple media rants and a rivaling Adidas contract, it seemed unlikely that the Nike design would ever see the light of day.
Nike announced via Twitter on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET that that Yeezys were available on their website for $245 … 11 minutes later, a second tweet said the sneaker was sold out.
If you blinked, you missed it, but it’s surely worth taking a look at the timeline.
May 18, 2013 — During his spirited “Saturday Night Live” performance, ‘Ye not only debuted new music, but his all-red Yeezy 2s as well. Wife-to-be Kim Kardashian helped increase the hype with a glimpse of the shoe on Instagram.
June 12, 2013 — West’s long-time manager Don C teased a blank image on Instagram with hashtags #airyeezy2 #redoctobers. ‘Ye also announced that he’d raffle off 50 pairs of the shoe around this same time, though we don’t think that happened.
October 14, 2013 — Just days after her infamous white swimsuit pic, Kim K showed off a pair of the kicks on IG. “Special delivery!!! Kanye is rehearsing for his tour so I can’t bug him right now…hmmmm what should I do with these? #Yeezys #RedOctobers,” she wrote.
November 20, 2013 — Yeezus blasts Nike CEO Mark Parker during his Barclays Center tour stop in Brooklyn. “They tried to make it as small as possible. Mark Parker even talked sh–, talking about, ‘We don’t even know why people like the Yeezys,’ ” he claimed.
November 25, 2013 — Kanye announces his deal with Nike rival Adidas on Hot 97. “The old me might have taken this Nike deal because I just love Nike so much, blah, blah, blah,” he told Angie Martinez. “But the new me with a daughter takes the Adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my daughter.”
December 20, 2013 — Footlocker announced via their official Twitter account that the Red Octobers would be available “ONLINE ONLY” on their website on December 27, only to retract the statement four days later.
February 9, 2014 — On the day before the 10th anniversary of ‘Ye’s The College Dropout Nike releases the Red Octobers online and sells them out in just 11 minutes.
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