NEW YORK CITY – A pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers – made exclusively for Michael Jordan and worn in 1985 when he played for the Chicago Bulls – have set a new world record for any pair of sneakers when they soared to $560,000 on Sunday, May 17 at Sotheby’s. Following a bidding war that drove the value up by $300,000 within the final 20 minutes of the sale, the pair easily surpassed the $150,000 high estimate. Ten bidders from as young as 19 years old participated across four continents, with seven of them new to Sotheby’s. The result bested the previous world record of $437,500, which Sotheby’s established in July 2019 for the Nike Waffle Racing Flat “Moon Shoe.”

Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s director of eCommerce Development, commented: “We are extremely excited about today’s record-breaking result! Building off the momentum from our debut sneaker sale last year, which previously set the record for a pair of sneakers with the Nike Moon Shoe, we wanted to set the bar even higher for our second sneaker sale. We saw tremendous bidding up until the moment the sale closed, with the value more than doubling in the final hour alone. That coupled with strong international bidding from six countries on four continents shows not only the incredible appeal of Michael Jordan as one of the most recognizable and legendary athletes of all time, but also that sneaker collecting is truly a global and growing market.”

For additional information, www.sothebys.com.