Michael Jordan game-worn rookie sneakers sell for record $1.47M

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A pair of video game-worn Michael Jordan sneakers from his rookie year marketed for $1.472 million to superior-finish card collector Nick Fiorella on Sunday through Sotheby’s Icons of Excellence & Haute Luxurious auction in Las Vegas, shattering the record for most high priced game-worn footwear.

The sneakers were being donned in Jordan’s fifth NBA match, a 17-place, 5-rebound and 5-assist outing versus the Denver Nuggets. Picture-matching purports that the sneakers could’ve been worn even previously.

The shoes are Nike Air Ships, built by sneaker icon Bruce Kilgore — who designed Nike Air Pressure 1s in 1982 and went on to structure the Air Jordan IIs. The legend is that when Nike initial manufactured a deal with Jordan in 1984, his initially signature shoe (Air Jordan 1s) wasn’t all set. In the meantime, Nike supplied Jordan with Air Ships — but Jordan’s were so colourful that the NBA educated him they violated the uniform clause.

A pair of Michael Jordan video game-worn sneakers from his rookie time bought for $1.472 million, shattering the former file of $615,000 for most expensive video game-worn footwear. Sotheby’s

This pair, notably, was signed by Jordan, as very well as gifted to, taken care of and now marketed by previous Nuggets ball boy TJ Lewis.

Brahm Wachter, who heads up Sotheby’s streetwear and modern-day collectibles arm, said: “From the second information broke of these sneakers, it generated large [buzz]. This extraordinary outcome for the Jordan Nike Air Ships speaks not only to the power of the collectibles market but also to the esteem with which Michael Jordan’s goods and the Jordan franchise are held.”

The past record for recreation-worn sneakers was, unsurprisingly, also a pair of Jordan’s. In a preseason exhibition in Italy in 1985, Jordan shattered a backboard with a dunk. The Air Jordan 1s he was carrying that recreation — nevertheless with a piece of glass in the sole of the left shoe — sold at a Christie’s auction in August 2020 for $615,000.

The Jordan Air Ships are the next-most high priced footwear at any time bought at auction the Yeezy 1 prototypes Kanye West publicly disclosed and wore at the 2008 Grammys were marketed for $1.8 million with Sotheby’s this past April.