Michael Jordan’s rookie Nike Air Ship shoes expected to sell for US$1m at auction
A pair of shoes worn NBA basketball legend Michael Jordan in his rookie season are expected to fetch a record price when they go up for auction at Sothebys later this month.
The Nike Air Ship trainers, which Jordan wore in his fifth game for the Chicago Bulls back in the 1984-85 season, are expected to be sold for between US$1 million and US$1.5 million, the auction house estimate.
Jordan wore the US size 13 shoes in a game against the Denver Nuggets on November 1, 1984. He autographed them and gave them to a Nuggets ball boy, current owner Tommie Tim Lewis III.
The Air Ships are the earliest known pair of Jordan’s gameworn regular season sneakers to go to auction. They will go up for live auction on October 24 in Las Vegas.
The record paid at auction for a pair of sneakers is US$615,000 in August last year at Christies. Those were Nike Air Jordan 1s that the six-time NBA champion wore in 1985. Last May Sothebys had sold a signed pair of Air Jordan 1s for US$560,000, a then record.
Both auctions followed on from the hit ESPN and Netflix series The Last Dance, which documented Jordan’s 1997-98 season at the Chicago Bulls.
Republicans, murder and Spike Lee – a history of Nike Air Jordans
Nike’s Air Ship design – created by Bruce Kilgore – was worn by Jordan as Nike finalised production of the Air Jordan 1, the first signature shoe of Jordan’s groundbreaking deal.
Jordan was promised a line designed specifically for him when Nike signed the highly rated rookie, the first time an athlete had been given a signature line.
The Air Ship was also the shoe model that was “banned” by the NBA for violating the league dress code, with Jordan facing a US$5,000 fine every time he wore the black and red colourway for a game.
Why Nike’s Air Jordan sneakers are the shoes of 2020
Nike built an advertising campaign around the shoes in the lead up to the release of the first Air Jordan shoes and the Jordan brand has since gone on to be worth billions of dollars.
With the rise of Air Jordans and similar brands to become a mult-billion dollar industry, Sotheby’s and its peers have entered the streetwear market in recent years.
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