New record for sneakers: R22 million for a pair of Nikes, once owned by Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan’s earliest known regular season game-worn Nike shoes sold at a Sotheby’s auction in Las Vegas Sunday for $1.47 million (almost R22 million), breaking a record for sneakers sold at auction.

The shoes were worn in Jordan’s fifth NBA game in his rookie season in 1984, the same year that Nike and Jordan created his signature line of shoes and clothes. The shoes were estimated to sell for $1 million to $1.5 million. The buyer was Nick Fiorella, a high-end cards collector, Sotheby’s said in a statement.

The sneakers are "simply an incredible artifact that dates to the nascency of Michael Jordan’s rookie season," Brahm Wahter, head of Sotheby’s Streetwear and Modern Collectibles, said in a statement ahead of the auction.

The Jordans aren’t the most expensive sneakers ever sold. In April, the company Rares bought a $1.8 million pair of Kanye West’s Nike Air Yeezy 1 sneakers in a Sotheby’s private sale, making them the most expensive known pair of shoes ever sold.

Rares is one of dozens of similar companies that have sprung up in recent years, all of which offer shares in luxury goods, artworks and collectibles. Rares didn’t bid on the Jordan sneakers, a spokesperson said. 

The shoes were sold as part of Sotheby’s Icons of Excellence & Haute Luxury auction in Las Vegas Sunday, which also includes jewelry, watches and collectors’ cars.

Today, the Jordan brand brings Nike billions of dollars each year and hard-to-get Jordan sneakers are resold on marketplaces like StockX and GOAT, sometimes for tens of thousands of dollars a pair.