The Nike Air Yeezy 2 remains one of the most iconic silhouettes of the 2010s, and new looks at unreleased prototypes continue to fuel its mythos more than a decade after its debut. This week, collector Simon Voltaire Tan shared images of a never-before-seen Nike Air Yeezy 2 sample in a striking “Heavy Metal/Anaconda” colorway, revealing an entirely new side of Kanye West’s groundbreaking second Swoosh collaboration.
The pair features a metallic Silver forefoot contrasted with Summit White quilted heel panels, which appear to take on an exotic reptile-inspired embossing. Perforated leather covers the toe box, while the signature midfoot strap and ridged heel remain intact. The sample’s theme is further highlighted by special details, including a “Heavy Metal/Anaconda” text hit on the internal tag, tonal Horus branding on the insole, and cryptic hieroglyph-style graphics on the strap. Glow-in-the-dark outsoles complete the look, staying true to one of the Yeezy 2’s most recognizable elements.
This unreleased build sits alongside other legendary prototypes from the Yeezy 2’s development phase, which included several scrapped samples before Nike settled on the retail “Solar Red” and “Pure Platinum” colorways in 2012. Though this “Heavy Metal/Anaconda” version never saw retail shelves, its discovery adds another layer to the already storied legacy of Kanye’s Nike era.
As with most Yeezy samples, this pair is unlikely to release, but its reveal offers collectors and sneaker fans a glimpse into what could have been had the Nike x Kanye partnership continued beyond the Yeezy 2.
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