Nike Air Yeezy 2 Sells Out In 11 Minutes Thanks To Twitter

Nike announced a surprise shoe launch on Sunday via Twitter, and lucky followers were able to jump to their official site to snatch up the latest in footwear from Kanye West. So many followers, in fac...
Nike Air Yeezy 2 Sells Out In 11 Minutes Thanks To Twitter
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Nike announced a surprise shoe launch on Sunday via Twitter, and lucky followers were able to jump to their official site to snatch up the latest in footwear from Kanye West. So many followers, in fact, that the shoe sold out in about 11 minutes.

    The Nike Air Yeezy 2 “Red October”, an all-red design with gold aglets on the tips of the shoelaces, has been the topic of much discussion recently after West announced he was leaving Nike to partner with Adidas due to a conflict over royalties.

    “I asked them when the Yeezy “Red Octobers” are coming out,” West said in a radio interview. “I asked them, me Kanye West, asked Nike when’s it coming out. They said, ‘we’re not sure yet.’ They let me design two shoes over five years. And I’m happy I could design them, but they ain’t do me no favor because Eminem designed a shoe, Pharrell designed a shoe. I just designed the Yeezys. I turned up, because I was in fourth grade designing Jordans and I brought back that feeling. You ain’t never felt that way about a shoe, since the Jordans, the way people feel about the Yeezys. I put that feeling. The same feeling that I put in College Dropout, Graduation, 808s, I put that feeling in there.

    “So then I start turning up in the BBC interview, so [Nike] said, ‘ok cool, we’re gonna give you a bigger sandbox to play in. We’re gonna give you this amount right here to design, and two collections a year, and 30 SKUs — that’s the amount of items that you have. Would that make you happy, Kanye?’ And I said, ‘well I need royalties.’ It’s not even like I have a joint venture. At least give me some royalties. Michael Jordan has 5%, that business is $2 billion. He makes a $100 million dollars a year off of 5% royalties. Nike told me, ‘we can’t give you royalties because you’re not a professional athlete.’ I told them, ‘I go to the Garden and go one on NO ONE. I’m a performance athlete.’ So the old me, without a daughter, would have taken the Nike deal because I just love Nikes so much. But the new me, with a daughter, takes the adidas deal because I have royalties and I have to provide for my family.”

    West later said that he hadn’t ruled out working with Nike again and spoke about branching out from his true love, music.

    “I’m still gonna do music but I really do feel honored to have had the chance to blow Yeezy up with Nike and I really appreciate everything they did for me,” he said. “I’m not knocking them on the way out or burning no bridges, you know, I apologize for my frustration earlier. I just think it’s time. It’s go time. It’s turn up time.”

    It was thought that the Red October design was canceled, and some are wondering why Nike decided on a surprise release on a Sunday, an odd day for a shoe drop. Fans were disappointed to learn at Christmastime last year that Footlocker wouldn’t be selling the shoe as they had originally promised.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

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