A set of six shoes worn by Michael Jordan during each of his NBA championship clinching victories sold at auction Friday morning for $8,032,800.
Sotheby’s, which had taken the shoes on an exhibition tour last year in an effort to sell them on behalf of the current owner, had placed a $7-$10 million estimate on the group.
The shoes were consigned by a private collector, who bought them from Tim Hallam, the public relations director for the Chicago Bulls during the team’s regular visits to the Finals in the 1990s. Hallam acknowledged years ago that It became tradition for Jordan to give him a shoe after a Finals clinching game.
“Today’s record-breaking price is a testament to the GOAT,” remarked Brahm Wachter of Sotheby’s. “The Dynasty Collection undeniably ranks among the most significant compilations of sports memorabilia in history. Serving as both a reminder of Michael Jordan’s lasting impact on the world and a tangible expression of his recognized legendary status, its significance is further validated by this monumental result. A truly unparalleled moment and milestone in auction history, the sale of these six championship-clinching sneakers will likely never be replicated.”
It’s the second highest price achieved for a piece of Jordan memorabilia, behind the $10.1 million paid for a jersey he wore in Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals that sold in September of 2022.
The shoes were on display the 2022 National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City.
They date to Bulls titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998. Jordan, who was the Finals MVP in each of those series, has autographed each one.
Labeled by Sotheby’s as The Dynasty Collection, the set consists of an 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).
Included with the lot was a set of signed 1/1 photographs depicting Jordan following each championship, smiling and celebrating while wearing just one sneaker. The other sneaker had already been given to Hallam in the locker room.
“I don’t play; I don’t score; I don’t rebound so the (championship) rings don’t mean quite so much to me as they do to the players,” Hallam told newspaper columnist Bryan Bloodworth in 1997 after the Bulls’ fifth title. “I wanted something that was an actual part of the game, so I asked Michael for one of his shoes.
“Now it’s kind of become a standing joke between us. Every year after we won the title, Michael will take his shoe off in the interview area, sign it and give it to me. It’s kind of funny to see Michael walk around with one shoe on and one shoe off.”
The shoes are all distinctly different. During Jordan’s first title in 1991, he wore the Nike Air Jordan VI, modeled after his Porsche 911.
For the Bulls’ return to championship form in 1996, he wore the “Bred” with a translucent sole.
For his sixth and final NBA Championship in 1998, he wore an early prototype of the Air Jordan XIV known as “Last Shot,” fashioned to emulate the lines of his Ferrari 550 Maranello.
There’s also the Air Jordan VII from 1992 (the first without Nike branding), the VIII from 1993 (the “x-strap”) and the XII from 1997 (the first with Nike Zoom Air).
During the process of certifying the authenticity and provenance of the sneakers, in addition to working with other third-party photo-matching experts, CSG documented the shoes for posterity, taking thousands of professional, high-resolution images for 360-degree views.
A pair of Jordan’s shoes worn in Game 2 of the 1998 Finals sold for $2.2 million last year and represent the most ever paid for any single pair of game-worn shoes.
An official scoresheet of Jordan’s career high 69-point game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in March 1990 sold for just over $50,000 in the auction that concluded Friday morning.
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