Michael Jordan's NBA Finals Sneakers Sold For Record $8 Million At Sotheby’s Auction
Basketball and Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan’s set of six NBA Finals sneakers sold for a record $8 million at a Sotheby’s auction on February 2. The collection called The Dynasty Collection includes six individual sneakers which were worn by Jordan during his six NBA championship wins with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s.
Michael Jordan's NBA Finals clinching shoes just sold a record-breaking $8 million at @sothebys.
— Sneaker News (@SneakerNews) February 2, 2024
Each shoe from The Dynasty Collection is game-worn and autographed by Michael Jordan himself 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Y31woVHGMf
The Dynasty Collection was auctioned off for $8,032,800, setting a new record for game-worn shoes, according to Sotheby’s. It included six shoes, Air Jordan VI (1991), Air Jordan VII (1992), Air Jordan VIII (1993), Air Jordan XI (1996), Air Jordan XII (1997), and Air Jordan XIV (1998), which were all worn during the six finals wins.
Notably, only one of each pair was sold, and Jordan won the NBA Finals MVP title each of those six years. Sotheby’s had initially estimated the collection’s value to be between $7 million and $10 million. As per Sotheby’s, the buyer bought the entire collection at its New York City location for a record-breaking price. “This set represents the most valuable and significant collection of Air Jordan sneakers ever brought to market,” the auction house said on its website ahead of the auction.
Tim Halland’s vision for Jordan collectibles
The Dynasty Collection was created because of the foresight of the former Chicago Bulls public relations director Tim Halland. He had asked Jordan for a game-worn Air Jordan trainers after the 1991 NBA Finals if the Bulls won the series. Jordan did so and due to superstition, he continued to give a pair of his game-worn shoes throughout the duration of the Bulls dynasty. Jordan signed and inscribed the shoes before gifting them to Halland. The auction house, Sotheby’s obtained the sneakers from a Private American Collector that had obtained them from Halland.
Legacy of Air Jordan
Michael Jordan is a 14-time All-Star, and he won six NBA Finals MVP trophies, five NBA MVP awards, and two Olympic gold medals. His legacy and play were so great that the then NBA Commissioner David Stern in 1992 called him "the standard by which basketball excellence is measured," as per CBS news. In 2022, the NBA renamed its MVP trophy after him.
Jordan earned the nickname Air Jordan because of his incredible leaping ability and acrobatic maneuvers on the court. Out of the court, Jordan also supercharged the sneaker shoe culture. His iconic partnership with Nike which started in the mid-1980s continues to set records in the industry. The Air Jordan line of Nike has been coveted by sneakerheads ever since the ex-Bulls star wore them in his rookie year. The shoes are a hot commodity in the resale market even today.
The rise of the Nike Air Jordans resale market pic.twitter.com/i89NINEVwa
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) March 11, 2023
Other auction records of Jordan
In April 2023, Jordan’s pair of shoes which he wore in the second game of the 1998 NBA Finals sold for $2.2 million, a record for a pair of sneakers. However, the highest auction price for any Jordan memorabilia was $10.1 million for his jersey 2022 from the first game of that series, per Sotheby's.