AUCTION company Christie's started a bid today for 11 pairs of sneakers that Michael Jordan wore during his career. A pair of sneakers that he was wearing when he played against Croatia and other rivals at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona is also among them.
It's expected that the auction will break the record for Jordan's sneakers, which the auction company Sotheby's sold for 560,000 dollars in May.
He scored with such force that it shattered the glass of the backboard, and a little piece of glass got stuck in the left sneaker
A pair of Air Jordan 1 High should break that record, and they are special because of one detail which was missing in the previous games where he was wearing them.
It was on 25 August 1985 at the exhibition game in Trieste, a type of game he had played earlier in former Yugoslavia when he scored with such force that it shattered the glass of the backboard and a little piece of glass was embedded on the sneaker's sole ever since. It is expected that they should be sold for between 650,000 and 850,000 dollars. That pair has been on the auction since July 23, and the majority of others is available from now until August 13.
The sneakers he was wearing before starting the Jordan brand will also be expensive, i.e., the sneakers that he wore before the ones with his name were produced. It's the model Nike Air Ship from 1984 which he wore in the first pre-season and at the beginning of his rookie season in the NBA league, and Christie's estimate to get between 350,000 and 550,000 dollars for them.
The Barcelona model has a special orthopedic insole
There's also the model Air Jordan 1 TYPS, which was made in 1985 according to Jordan's specifications, so the right sneaker is size 13, and the left one size 13.5. Christie's is expecting 70,000 dollars for that pair.
There is also Air Jordan 7 at that price range, which Jordan wore at the Olympics in Barcelona and beat Croatia twice while wearing them. They are unique because they feature an innovative orthopedic insole that was used to provide additional comfort even after wearing them numerous times, i.e., until the end of the Olympic tournament. They were kept in the Ambassador Hotel in Barcelona.