Auctioned: the most expensive sports shoes ever

Perhaps most of us would not consider adding a pair of pre-owned sneakers to our collection. Yet there was considerable enthusiasm for Michael Jordan's pair. Last week, the Air Jordan 13 Bred fetched a record price.

IPerhaps most of us should not even think about enriching the sneaker collection with a pair of already used ones. Still, there was plenty of enthusiasm for Michael Jordan's pair. Last week, the ''Air Jordan's 13 Bred'' fetched a record amount.

Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship in 1998. The season went down as 'The Last Dance'. In 2020, Netflix even published a series about it. On June 5 of this iconic season, the world watched as Michael Jordan led the team Utah Jazz managed to beat. Yep: in the specific Air Jordan's 13 Bred.

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Immediately after the game, an employee responsible for the locker rooms received a special gift from the basketball player. The boy had seen Michael during an earlier training and found his lost jacket. After returning the jacket to Jordan, he asked if he could have his shoes after the Utah Jazz game. This is how it happened: after the game, Jordan signed the sneakers and presented them to him as a thank you for his services. 

The sneakers have a large, silver signature on each toe and are in pristine condition. The shoes are very rare as they are the only complete pair of sneakers Michael ever wore to an NBA Finals game and were authenticated by the official Authenticator of the NBA. 

The black and red pair disappeared under the auction hammer of Sotheby's last Tuesday. The auction house expected a return of between 2 and 4 million euros. It ended up being just over 2 million. This means that the sneakers will go down as the most expensive sports shoes ever.