Rare Nike sneakers selling for SGD600,000

A whopping SGD600,000 – that’s how much a pair of rare Nike shoes designed by the co-founder was sold for.

In an auction of 100 pairs of shoes, from Adidas to Air Jordans in New York – these were the last pair of shoes to be sold.

The 1972 Nike Waffle Racing Flat Moon Shoe was expected to fetch $160,000 (SGD216,000).

Miles Nadal, a Canadian collector paid almost three-times that, paying another $850,000 (SGD1 million) for the other 99 pairs in the auction.

The rare vintage shoes were designed by Bill Bowerman, a track coach who co-founded Nike.

Only 12 pairs were handmade and were handed out to runners at the 1972 Olympic trials except for the one being auctioned which was not worn.

Bowerman used a waffle iron to imprint the tread on the shoes, said Noah Wunsch, Sotheby’s global head of e-commerce.

Nadal, founder of investment firm Peerage Capital said he was thrilled at this purchase calling the Moon Shoe a “true historical artefact in sports history and pop culture”.

“I think sneaker culture and collecting is on the verge of a breakout moment,” he added, with plans to display all the shoes he bought at his private automobile museum in Toronto.

The shoes he bought included two pairs of Nike Mags, famous in the 1989 Back to the Future Part II because it had automatic lacing, a technology Nike didn’t bring to the market until almost 30 years later.

The limited edition Back to the Future 2016 trainers are priced between $50,000 (SGD68,000) and $70,000 (SGD95,000)

The Jeter edition Air Jordan 11 was also another star at the auction, created to commemorate New York Yankee baseball star Derek Jeter’s retirement in 2017 – with only five pairs made.

The shoes were sold for close to $60,000 (SGD81,000).

The most expensive shoes for public auction was a pair of signed Converse shoes worn by Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic basketball final which went for $190,373 (SGD259,000).

They were auctioned in California in 2017. -/TISG