Michael Jordan’s championship sneakers sell for record S$10.7 million
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The shoes became the second-highest price achieved for Michael Jordan sports memorabilia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – A set of six individual Air Jordan sneakers, worn by the eponymous basketball star in the 1990s, was sold in New York on Feb 2 for a record US$8 million (S$10.7 million), according to auction house Sotheby’s.
Michael Jordan had given the other sides of the shoes to Chicago Bulls communications executive Tim Hallam, after decisive games that helped the franchise win six National Basketball Association (NBA) championships from 1991 to 1993 and 1996 to 1998.
The purchase price achieved at the auction at Sotheby’s is a record for game-worn sneakers – and the second highest ever for Jordan collectibles. Sotheby’s boasted in a statement that did not disclose the buyer’s identity that the price reached for the “Dynasty Collection” of Jordan’s shoes “will likely never be replicated”.
“Today’s record-breaking price is a testament to the GOAT. To have something from one of Jordan’s championship-clinching games is a goal for every collector of sports artefacts. To have something from all six is unheard of,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of modern collectibles, using a popular acronym for “greatest of all time”.
“A truly unparalleled moment and milestone in auction history, the sale of these six championship-clinching sneakers will likely never be replicated.”
The six shoes were an Air Jordan VI (1991), VII (1992), VIII (1993), XI (1996), XII (1997) and an Air Jordan XIII (1998).
The sale also reportedly included a set of signed limited photographs depicting Jordan following the 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1998 NBA Finals, celebrating while wearing just one sneaker.
Hallam had made a request to Jordan before the basketball star won his first final in 1991 – asking for one of his game-worn Air Jordan sneakers. Jordan did so, signed and gave the Bulls executive the shoe, which became a tradition that continued out of superstition for subsequent finals.
The shoes that were not given to Hallam, according to a Forbes article, were obtained by a private American collector, who ultimately enlisted Sotheby’s for the sale.
Last April, the company, owned by French-Israeli tycoon Patrick Drahi, auctioned a pair of sneakers worn by Jordan in his last championship final with the Chicago Bulls in 1998 for US$2.2 million.
That was a record for the shoes, “Bred” (“Black and Red”) Air Jordan XIII, which were signed by the player. He wore them in Salt Lake City for the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, documented in the Netflix and ESPN documentary The Last Dance.
Demand from collectors since 2020-21 has driven up the prices commanded by such items at auction. The record for the most expensive jersey in auction history is Michael Jordan’s 1998 final shirt, which went for US$10.1 million in September 2022.
That price is ahead of the late Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona’s World Cup quarter-final shirt from his side’s storied clash against England in 1986, which handily brought in US$9.3 million in May 2022.
In December, six shirts worn by fellow Argentinian football great Lionel Messi during the South American side’s triumphant run at the 2022 Qatar World Cup were sold for US$7.8 million. REUTERS, AFP
