A Look At The 12 Most Expensive Sneakers In The World To Ever Exist

August 6, 2024
7 mins read
Most expensive sneakers in the World

If you are someone who loves a pair of luxury sneakers, we have got what you need. This article consists of the most expensive sneakers in the world in 2024. Starting from the “Dynasty Collection” to some of the most exclusive Jordan editions.

Also read The World’s Top 6 Most Expensive Footwears: A Journey Through Luxury

The Most Expensive Sneakers In The World

The Dynasty CollectionSotheby's 'The Dynasty Collection' presents Michael Jordan's game-worn sneakers in all 6 NBA championships | Fox Business Most expensive sneakers in the world

Estimated Value: $8 Million

This year, in Sotheby’s alone, the most successful sneaker sale in the company’s history was made with the pack of eight sneakers titled “The Dynasty Collection” for $8 million, according to the ACLU reports. Ninety-nine pairs of the sneakers were from the Dynasty Collection, which featured eight sneakers used by Michael Jordan during the NBA playoffs of eight different seasons.

Tim Hallam, the Chicago Bulls’ public relations officer for many years, was once asked by MJ for one of his game-worn shoes, particularly after a finals performance in 1991, after which Jordan did the same after every playoff performance as if it was a charm. These eight shoes are the other sneakers that failed to be provided to Hallam in these instances.

This particular sale, however, is even more impressive due to the fact that none of the sneakers for sale included two of the same. The lot also consisted of a set of signed photos by Bill Smith of Jordan after every one of the Finals, in which the man could be seen sporting a shoe on only one of his feet.

“The Last Dance” Air Jordan 13 Michael Jordan's 'Last Dance' sneakers set to be sold for jaw-dropping price - Hindustan Times

Estimated Value: $2.2 Million

Sports documentaries, specifically the Michael Jordan’s documentary, namely, ESPN’s The Last Dance, which debuted in 2020, boosted Air Jordan sneakers worn during that season, especially the Jordan Yellow shoe. The latest buyer made a purchase from the Sotheby’s for a pair of Jordan 13s that the basketball legend wore in the final game of the 1998 NBA finals.

The grand total was a staggering $2. 2 million, the price that has been agreed prior to the auction and according to the preliminary estimations of the auction house. It was more or less a record sale for the two sports shoes and a refreshing sign that nothing can beat memorabilia, especially of Michael Jordan. The kicks were “Bred” and looked to be in good shape, given the usage on the court they seem to have gotten.

Nike Air Yeezy Samples The Nike Air Yeezy 1 Grammy Sample Loses 90% of its Value, Sells for $180,000

Estimated Value: $1.8 Million

Of course, it is not Jordans alone that is raising the din on the high-end sneaker market, as this record-breaking sale displayed. Sotheby’s has documented a sale at auction of only one prototype of Nike Air Yeezy Samples, which Kanye West first wore at the Grammy Awards in 2008 during the spring of 2021. It is in one of these auctions that the sneakers became the first pair that was sold for over a million dollars.

The Nike Air Yeezy Samples were bought by the investing platform referred to as RARES. Gerome Sapp, the company’s CEO and founder, said that the shoes were bought to improve access and equip the communities that pioneered sneaker fashion with the means to achieve economic liberty, whereas purchasing the sneakers was akin to buying a piece of history, according to the newspapers.

Nike Air ShipNike Air Ship - History Lesson – Sneaker History - Podcasts, Footwear News & Sneaker Culture

Estimated Value: $1.4 Million

When this pair of Nike Air Ship was auctioned, it almost reached a dollar due to the service delivered by the athlete. At a sale at Sotheby’s towards the end of 2021, they were bidding for and subsequently bought for $ 5 million, becoming the temporary holder of the title of the world’s most expensive sports shoes and are still regarded as one of the most valued one of sports memorabilia. Known to have been used by the basketball legend during his fifth-ever NBA game in November 1984, it is an iconic sneaker.

The Nike Air Ship sneaker is quite famous to hardcore sneaker collectors as it was the pair Jordan wore in the NBA when the design for Air Jordan was still under development at Nike. Specifically, this pair of Air Ships would have been one of the first and, perhaps, the only shoes Michael ever wore on the field that could not be attributed to Nike Air Ship series – his own shoes signature line, as it were.

“Flu Game” Air Jordan 12Flu Game 12s - Price + Release Info | SneakerNews.com

Estimated Value: $1.3 Million

Following Game 5 of the 1998 NBA Finals, a Utah Jazz ball boy by the name of Preston Truman was given a once-in-a-lifetime gift: the sneakers that Michael Jordan used while playing the game. Later in the year 2020, following the launch of The Last Dance and collectors’ increased attention to Air Jordans, Truman scalped the shoes to Grey Flannel Auctions for relatively over 200 thousand US Dollars.

Incredible but true, three years later, in early 2023, they were resold for $1 at an auction. 38 million. It was fortuitous that the shoes were worn during the flu game, a match in which Jordan played despite having the flu, which later made him produce one of the greatest performances. To date, the black and red Air Jordan 12s are popularly referred to as the ‘Flu Game’, which implies that these are the original versions of one of the most famous Jordan.

“Glass Shard” Air Jordan 1 The 12 Most Expensive Sneakers Ever Sold | GQ

Estimated Value: $615,000

In August 2020, a pair of Jordan’s game-worn Air Jordan 1, due to the sequel to Last Dance and Jordan’s explosive popularity, a single auction under Christie’s was able to hit the market with half a million dollars. Said to be used by the basketball legend Michael Jordan in Italy during an exhibition gamw, as stated on the auction page, they were expected to attract a much higher bid, around $850 000.

What made this particular pair of Jordan 1 so unique was what else was included with them: by no means a small fragment of glass that has been set into the shoe leather, as if Jordan had once crashed through a backboard during a slam dunk. These, however, are quite different from the “Shattered Backboard” Jordan 1s. Now, during the same auction, a pair of sports shoes belonging to Jordan was sold for more than $100,000; the sneakers were used during the gold medal match of the 1992 Team USA.

Game- Worn Air Jordan 1 Michael Jordan's Game-Worn Air Jordans Set Record | Barnebys Magazine

Estimated Value: $560,000

Just several months before the given entry, another two Air Jordan 1s appeared at the auction and became the pair to break the record of shoe selling, which has been set in 2019 at ABMB (see below). Game- Worn Air Jordan 1 pair of shoes was signed by Michael Jordan and worn during a game in his rookie year. As with the vertical that MJ established for his sneakers, bids during the last 10 days skyrocketed, increasing by $ 300,000 to settle down at $ 560,000.

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Nike “Moon Shoe” Rare Nike Prototypes for 'Moon Shoes' Being Pitched to Hundreds

Estimated Value: $437,500

When Nike was an infant company in 1972, the company’s co-founder, and running evangelist, Bill Bowerman, constructed one of the Swoosh’s first high-performance running shoes. Referred to as the “Moon Shoes,” because the waffle-tread soles stamped the ground like the foot of an astronaut, only some 12 pairs of these crude models were created and distributed in that year to some of the participants in the US Track & Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

They later became the basis on which Nike formulated their Waffle Trainer which was released to the market in 1974. It was forty-five years later that the sneakers repeated their history again by being the first collectable sports shoes to be auctioned at Christie’s. Ek sawline, the 2019 sale was very useful in setting the market’s pace, and in the present time, it is still growing.

At the time, no one expected sneaker auctions to be quite so coveted: this opened expectations for the Moon Shoes at a low $160,000, with the pair going for nearly three times that value. It took a Canadian businessman by the name of Miles Nadal to purchase these mammoth grails in the auction; he termed them as “a true historical artefact in sports history and pop culture.”

“Broken Foot” Air Jordan 1 The Rare Air Jordans Made for an Injured Michael Jordan | Complex

Estimated Value: $422,130

The “Broken Foot” Air Jordan 1 shoes are yet another pair of the Js worn during the games, and which greatly surpassed the initial bidding price. H & R Block was sold for a staggering amount of $ 422,130, and they began at an asking price of $ 250,000 in an auction at Leland’s in January 2022.

The shoes’ name originated from a game that pitted the bulls against the Golden State Warriors on 29″ th October 1985, Michael Jordan had a cracked left foot bone during the match. The injury would turn into a season-defining for Jordan, seeing as it hampered his second season and, at the same time, ignited that fire within him to get his first championship, as the ESPN documentary, ‘The Last Dance’, depicts.

This is something that Leland claimed to have sourced the shoes from a cosigner whose father was given the sneakers personally by Jordan when the game-worn sneakers were given out at the time, as Complex reported. The sneakers come in Jordan’s own slightly mismatched sizing: on the left side – it is size 13, and on the right – it is size 13.5.

Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force One The History Behind the Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 by Virgil Abloh | Sneakers, Sports Memorabilia & Modern Collectibles | Sotheby's

Estimated Value: $352,800

In February 2022, just months after the tragic passing of Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton auctioned off 200 pairs of the late visionary’s most coveted sneaker designs: Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force One which is covered not a scratch with LV’s monogram and Damier check.

This auction held at Sotheby’s was done to support Abloh’s celebrated scholarship fund “Post-Modern,” which was established to “provide education for academically talented students of Black, African American or African origin.” The majority of the pairs had fetched prices of between $100,000 and $200,000.

This specific pair Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force One shoes, size 5, was sold for almost 25 times higher than the estimated price of the auction and much higher than the second priciest pair, which was the same size – US 5. Five cars were bought at the cost of $176400 for the rumours. From this spectrum, it is only evident that the demand for works developed by Abloh increases, and other pieces with his imprint will escalate to soaring high bids in years to come.

Nike Air MagNike Mags: how to get a pair of Nike Mag sneakers and trainer review | British GQ | British GQ

Estimated Value: $200,000

There’s perhaps no more famous sneaker scene in movie history than Marty McFly slipping on his futuristic, auto-lacing Nike Air Mag kicked in 1989’s Back to the Future: Chapter Seven PART II. After decades of lobbying from fans, Nike Air Mag finally released the fictional sneakers to the public via two highly limited drops: First, it was in 2011 without the power laces, and then again in 2016 with it.

Money that was generated from both slaps went to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which was established to seek a cure for Parkinson’s disease. The originals of the 2016 version alone were 88 pairs, and they helped to gather more than $6 million of money for the mentioned charity; one pair was auctioned at the gala for $200,000 only.

“MJ’s Secret Stuff” Air Jordan 1Most expensive sneakers in the world

Estimated Value: $176,000

Any sneakerhead of a certain vintage will know that there is no shoe more desirable, now, than the Air Jordan 11 “Space Jam.” And the most elusive, and the sexiest version of the “Space Jam” is the sample of them created for the film left unsullied and certified by His Airness Jordan himself. Trademarked as the MJ’s Secret Stuff Jordan 11s, they went for a staggering $176,000 at an auction conducted last year.

 

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A 21-year-old Delhiite pursuing her Master's in Sociology from Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi. She aims to become a Sociologist and stays immersed in the world of ideas and curiosity. She is passionate about reading, writing, cooking, and continuous learning. She is also an avid animal lover at heart. Strongly believes and follows this quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who says, “I am a strong believer in the ability of human beings to change for the better. I am a strong believer in trying to change what we are dissatisfied with.”

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