At US$437,500, Nike running shoes smash auction record for sneakers

New York

A PAIR of 1972 running shoes, one of the first pairs made by Nike, sold for US$437,500 on Tuesday, shattering the world record for a pair of sneakers at public auction.

The so-called Nike Moon Shoe, designed by Nike co-founder and track coach Bill Bowerman for runners at the 1972 Olympics trials, was the top lot in the first-ever auction dedicated to sneakers at Sotheby's auction house in New York.

Sotheby's said the price was a world auction record for a pair of sneakers. The buyer in the online auction was not immediately known.

The highest previous price fetched at public auction for sneakers is thought to be US$190,373 in California in 2017 for a pair of signed Converse shoes said to have been worn by former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic basketball final. Sotheby's, better known for selling art works fetching tens of millions of dollars, teamed up with streetwear marketplace Stadium Goods to auction 100 pairs of the rarest sneakers ever produced in a venture that reflects their fast-growing status as collectibles.

The other 99 pairs of sneakers originally up for auction were bought privately as a single lot last week for US$850,000, Sotheby's said. They were acquired by Canadian car collector and investor Miles Nadal who plans to display them at his private automobile museum in Toronto, Sotheby's said.

Nadal's haul included 2011 and 2016 versions of the Back to the Future Part II limited-edition shoes by Nike that were inspired by the 1989 film starring Michael J Fox, and limited-edition sneakers produced by Adidas, Air Jordan and rapper Kanye West's Yeezy collection. REUTERS