Last week marked ten years since the very first Yeezy – the Nike Air Yeezy ‘Zen Grey’ – hit shelves. There had been a number of special sneaker make-ups designed by Kanye prior, including a College Dropout-inspired Bapesta, friends & family-exclusive Air 180s and a number of scrapped Reebok samples, but the Air Yeezy was the first to officially bear Ye’s nickname, and the first to be entirely designed from the sole up. The sneaker scene was a very different beast a decade ago and the tenth anniversary of the OG Air Yeezy perfectly highlights just how much things have changed.
So, with that in mind, we decided to wind back the clock to reflect on how the very first Yeezy drop went down in 2009.
I was in San Francisco when the Air Yeezy ‘Zen Grey’ released. I was newly 22 at the time and SF was the first destination on a three-month-long journey through the US and Canada. It was my first time in San Francisco, but I immediately fell in love. I didn’t visit any of the usual tourist haunts like Alcatraz or the Golden Gate Bridge, but instead just explored the city at random… well, mostly. It was my first time in the States since the start of my sneaker obsession and visiting hometown heroes HUF in their heyday seemed like something of a pilgrimage. While HUF was the only local store I was familiar with prior, just about every corner of the city I explored had a sneaker spot just dying to be explored.
The Air Yeezy was slated to make its debut that Saturday but it didn’t take long into my stay for the camp chairs to appear. By Wednesday, every pair at the city’s flagship had been claimed by eager campers. Day by day, camp outs began to fill at the smaller boutiques and allocations exhausted, still days ahead of release. Such extreme measures to secure a coveted sneaker were foreign to me, as an Australian, at the time, so I snapped some photos, wished them well, and continued to enjoy all that San Francisco had to offer.
Flash forward to Friday and I struck up a conversation with a worker at a local Finishline at the end of his shift, wondering in a desperate attempt if they would stocking Yeezys. They weren’t, he told me, but he’d heard a rumour that a Shiekh Shoes down Market Street had been allocated 15 pairs and the city’s sneakerheads were none the wiser. We ventured to the store to get the lowdown and, on finding out the rumour was true, disappeared to obtain supplies for a night on the streets. By the time we returned, it was clear that word had got out and a line-up had gathered in front of the store. ‘Oh no’ we thought, but thankfully two pairs remained unaccounted for. We staked our claim and bunkered down for a night in the San Francisco chill.
The Air Yeezy drop was my first ever sneaker camp out, and it showed. I was woefully under prepared to endure the full wraith of the elements. I can honestly say I have never felt colder in my life, but at least I had a size 12 waiting for me at the end of the experience – or so I thought. There wasn’t just the cold to compete with. As they say, the freaks come out at night, and SF didn’t disappoint. I had a gentleman literally rip a magazine from my hands and hurl it does the street after discovering it featured an interview with Michael Jordan, before then threatening to murder me cold-blooded in the street. Thankfully, I didn’t wake up in a pool of my own blood.
As the sun began to rise, so too did my spirits that this would all soon be over. With the arrival of the morning light came a new set of faces on the street: sneakerheads. Despite telling them that all pairs were accounted for, that didn’t stop a small crowd of hungry hypebeasts from trying their luck. As opening time neared, we began to hear reports from the launch at Nike’s flagship. Kids were getting mugged in the streets for the pairs they had spent the entire week camping for. The crowd began to swell out front of Shiekh as they let us in one by one. All that was left by the time I stepped up to the counter was a size 14, but, still, I paid and, as I emerged from the store, bolted for the nearest taxi to get me the hell out of there!
Things went down a little different for the Yeezy drop in Australia – especially in my hometown of Adelaide. Just one store there was stocking Yeezys and they only had a handful of pairs to go around, which were released by an in-store raffle for their most loyal customers. The same was repeated in other Australian cities and again for the release of the Air Yeezy 2.
Still, not everyone in the world was so aware of Yeezys – and the hype that surrounded them – back in 2009. Pairs sold out instantly in most parts of the world, but certain cities were completely oblivious. South African retailer Shelflife had all three colourways still sitting on shelves weeks after release until they were cleaned out by a pack of users on the Sneaker Freaker forums – although in these early days of e-commerce, purchasing from stores overseas wasn’t as easy as hitting ‘add to cart’.
Nowadays, Yeezy hype is public knowledge, with everyone from sneakerheads to school kids thirsting for the next drop. Thankfully, it’s rare that you’ll ever need to camp on the streets for a pair of a Yeezys, no matter where you go. Most stores have dropped this sneaker staple in favour of public raffles, ensuring that everyone has an equal chance of getting their pair.
So, the next time you’re copping kicks from the comfort of your home, shed a thought for those of us that were roughing it on the streets to get their fix back in 2009!