[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] The basketball shoes worn by the "Basketball King" Michael Jordan during his rookie game were sold for $1,472,000 (about 1.7 billion KRW) at a Sotheby's auction.
According to Bloomberg on the 24th (local time), Sotheby's announced that the Nike Airship sneakers Jordan wore in a 1984 regular season game were sold for this amount at an auction held in Las Vegas that day. This is a new record for game-worn sneakers at Sotheby's auctions.
Jordan, who was with the Chicago Bulls, wore these basketball shoes in his fifth regular season NBA game on November 1, 1984, against the Denver Nuggets. After the game, he gifted the shoes to Tommy Tim Lewis, a ball boy for Denver.
Nike had introduced shoes and athletic wear named after Jordan starting from his debut season in 1984. Most limited edition Airship sneakers provided to Jordan by Nike at the time had "Nike Air" or "Air Jordan" inscribed on the heel, but the shoes auctioned this time are known to be a rare product with only "Air" written on them.
Originally expected to sell for $1 million to $1.5 million (about 1.2 billion to 1.8 billion KRW), Sotheby's said the shoes were purchased by Nick Fiorella, a high-end card collector.
Bram Wachter, Sotheby's Vice President, described the shoes before the auction as "an amazing item that traces back to the origins of Michael Jordan's rookie season."
Last May, Sotheby's also held an auction for Air Jordan 1 shoes worn by Jordan, which sold for $560,000 (about 670 million KRW) at that time.
Meanwhile, in April, the Nike Air Yeezy sneakers worn by American hip-hop star Kanye West at the 2008 Grammy Awards were sold for $1.8 million (about 2 billion KRW), setting the highest record for worn sneakers at Sotheby's auctions.
The luxury sneaker auction market, which has grown explosively in recent years, is expected to expand to $30 billion (about 36 trillion KRW) by 2030.
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