Air Jordan jumped over the Moon.
A signed pair of sneakers that Michael Jordan wore during his 1984-85 rookie season was sold by Sotheby’s on Sunday for $560,000, an all-time record for a pair of sneakers.
The sneakers, owned by famed shoe collector Jordy Geller, broke the record of a pair of moon shoes, an original prototype of Nike’s first shoes given to University of Oregon runners by Nike co-founder and Oregon coach Bill Bowerman. Those shoes, which were also sold by Geller, went for $437,500 last July at Sotheby’s.
It was not immediately known who purchased the shoes.
Geller, who bought the shoes in 2012, said he realized he should probably part with them when he saw the hysteria for Michael Jordan items driven by the ESPN documentary “The Last Dance,” whose final two episodes of the 10-part series conclude Sunday night.
“I decided to sell because now is the right time,” Geller said. “Your tweets about Michael Jordan memorabilia convinced me to sell them.”
“Jordy always has a great sense of timing for these things,” said Brahm Wachter of Sotheby’s, who ran the auction. “We are thrilled with the price. It just speaks to Michael Jordan’s incredible legacy and people recognizing him as the greatest athlete to ever play.”
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The shoes sold for more than what Jordan made to wear the Air Jordans for his first five years in the league ($500,000 per year).
The previous record for Jordan game-used shoes was a pair of Converse shoes worn by Jordan in the 1984 Olympics. That was sold by SCP Auctions for $190,373 in June 2017. The record for the highest priced game-used Air Jordans were the Air Jordan XII’s that Jordan wore during Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. That pair, from the game dubbed “The Flu Game” sold for $104,765 in 2013.
Sunday’s sale of the Air Jordan I’s also surpassed the amount someone paid for the shoes worn by Roger Bannister when he became the first man to break the four-minute mile barrier in 1954. That sale hit $409,000.
Several other Jordan memorabilia records will fall later Sunday as Goldin Auctions concludes its sale. As of 12:30 pm ET, the 1986-87 Fleer Jordan rookie in a PSA 10 stands at $97,200, a new record for that card.
