FLOAT 100 · Sneakers · No. 92
Nike Air Yeezy 2 'Pure Platinum'
The grey half of Nike's 2012 Air Yeezy 2 launch went mostly to the West Coast, sold out the day it dropped, and became one of only two Air Yeezy 2s Nike released while Kanye West was still its partner.
- Year
- 2012
- Maker
- Nike
- By price in sneakers
- 34 of 100
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Create a free account- Shoe
- Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG 'Pure Platinum,' Wolf Grey/Pure Platinum, style 508214-010
- Released
- June 9, 2012, alongside the black 'Solar Red'
- Retail price
- $245 per some accounts; release listings give $250
- Production
- 5,000 pairs of each launch colorway, per one sneaker publication
- Designer
- Nathan VanHook, with Kanye West
- Details
- Grey upper, red collar lining, midfoot strap, molded heel, 'YZY' hieroglyphics, glow-in-the-dark outsole
- Distribution
- Platinum mainly to West Coast shops, the black pair to the East Coast; Chicago got both
- Release-day result
- Both colorways sold out instantly
The second Nike Yeezy
After the first Air Yeezy, Kanye West and Nike went back to work. Nike designer Nathan VanHook worked with West on the Air Yeezy 2, a new silhouette with a strap across the midfoot and details borrowed from Nike's Tech Challenge line.
The shoe was full of ornament. It had a ridged, reptile-inspired heel counter, a snakeskin-inspired texture on the side panel, hieroglyphics spelling out 'YZY' and other Egyptian references, including Horus imagery. VanHook later said West went over every piece: the anaconda-textured side panel, the toe overlay, the articulated tongue and the inscribed lace toggle.
The public saw it more than a year before it went on sale. It first appeared in February 2011 in The Black Mamba, a short film with Kobe Bryant and director Robert Rodriguez, and West wore pairs at Coachella and Paris Fashion Week. Nike announced the release on May 29, 2012.
June 9, 2012: grey for the West
Nike launched the Air Yeezy 2 on June 9, 2012, in two colorways: the 'Pure Platinum,' and the black 'Solar Red.' One sneaker publication puts the run at 5,000 pairs of each; Nike did not publish a figure. Accounts of the retail price differ, with some giving $245 and release listings giving $250.
Nike split the country by color. West Coast retailers received the Platinum, East Coast accounts received the black pair, and Chicago was the only market to get both. Both colorways sold out instantly.
Demand showed up in odd ways. A Cincinnati boutique raffled its Platinum pairs at $5 a ticket and sold more than 2,000 tickets to well over 500 people, raising a $10,000 donation for a local youth basketball program. Before release, preorder bids on an online auction site reached as high as $90,000.
It was a big summer for West. His GOOD Music crew's single 'Mercy' had come out April 3, a short film called Cruel Summer debuted at Cannes on May 23, and the label's album of the same name followed on September 14, opening at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
How to identify a Pure Platinum pair
The Pure Platinum is the light pair: layered shades of grey on the upper, set against a bright red collar lining. The outsole glows in the dark, and the heel carries the molded, reptile-textured counter that defines the model.
The size tag should read style code 508214-010 and the colorway Wolf Grey/Pure Platinum. The black pair from the same day is 508214-006, and the all-red 'Red October' of 2014 is a different code entirely.
Condition is the main variable among surviving pairs. The shoe is now more than a decade old, and resellers routinely flag pairs with missing size tags, missing boxes or age wear, which separate a collectible example from a wearable one.
The last Yeezy Nike made with West
The Air Yeezy 2 proved West could move sneakers like an athlete, and it is also where the partnership came apart. During his Yeezus Tour he complained from the stage that Nike had kept the release as small as possible and delayed a third colorway. The core dispute was royalties, which Nike would not pay because he was not a professional athlete.
West left Nike for adidas in the fall of 2013 and took the Yeezy name with him. In 2015 he launched the Yeezy Boost 750 and the Yeezy Boost 350 there. Nike released one more Air Yeezy 2, the all-red 'Red October,' on February 9, 2014, and the line ended.
That leaves the Pure Platinum and the Solar Red as the only Air Yeezy 2s Nike released while West was still with the company. They are the bridge between the Nike Yeezy and the adidas empire that followed.
The numbers
- Release date
- June 9, 2012
- Retail price
- $245 (some accounts); $250 (release listings)
- Style code
- 508214-010
- Colorway
- Wolf Grey/Pure Platinum
- Production
- 5,000 pairs each of Pure Platinum and Solar Red, per one sneaker publication; Nike has not published a figure
- Air Yeezy 2 releases
- Pure Platinum and Solar Red (June 9, 2012); Red October (February 9, 2014)
Timeline
The Air Yeezy 2 first appears in the short film The Black Mamba.
Nike announces the Air Yeezy 2.
The Pure Platinum and Solar Red release; both sell out instantly.
GOOD Music releases Cruel Summer.
On the Yeezus Tour, West attacks Nike over royalties and the delayed third colorway.
West leaves Nike for adidas in the fall.
Nike releases the 'Red October,' the final Air Yeezy 2.
West's first adidas shoe, the Yeezy Boost 750, debuts during NBA All-Star Weekend.
The world in 2012
GOOD Music releases 'Mercy.'
NASA and SpaceX launch Dragon, the first commercial spacecraft to berth with the International Space Station.
The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Care Act, 5-4.
A gunman kills 12 people at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado.
The London Summer Olympics open; the U.S. wins 46 gold medals.
NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
Disney buys Lucasfilm, and with it Star Wars, for $4.05 billion.
Price record
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Nike Air Yeezy 2 'Pure Platinum' is number 34 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (92 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Chicago was the only city to get both launch colorways.
- The Air Yeezy 2 appeared in a Kobe Bryant short film more than a year before it went on sale.
- Hieroglyphics on the shoe spell out 'YZY.'
- One Cincinnati shop's raffle for the Platinum raised $10,000 for a youth basketball program.
- Before release, preorder bids online reached as high as $90,000.
- West said Nike would not pay him royalties because he was not a professional athlete.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026