On May 17, the Sotheby's New York auction house announced that Michael Jordan's hand-signed game shoe Game Worn Autographed Nike Air Jordan 1s in 1985 was sold at a record $560,000 in an online auction.

This transaction price also broke the world record for sports shoe auctions. The previous record holder was the 1972 limited edition Nike "Moon Shoe" auctioned by Sotheby's in July 2019. The auction transaction price was 437,500 US dollars .

In the last twenty minutes of auction, the auction price of these Air Jordan 1s rose by $300,000, and the actual transaction price was 3.5 times the expected highest transaction price ($150,000). It is reported that the participating bidders are between 19 and 50 years old, covering 4 continents, 70% of which are new Sotheby’s bidders. The auction was held in line with the 35th anniversary of the Air Jordan sneakers and the airing of the last episode (10th episode) of the ESPN documentary "The Last Dance". "The Last Dance" is mainly about the legendary career of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan.

This pair of 1985 Vintage Originals first year color matching shoes use the Chicago Bulls' iconic white, black and red collocation. It is also the most frequent Air Jordan1s color matching Michael Jordan wears on the court. In 1984, Nike provided Michael Jordan with a series of signature shoes and jerseys, which led to the signing of Jordan with Nike. Air Jordan shoes were launched between February and April 1985. Jordan wore this pair of Air Jordan 1 early in his career, so he quickly promoted the popularity of this sneaker.

The auction shoes in this auction are different from the publicly sold Air Jordan 1s: the style is Mids with red shoelaces; Nike only released Highs and Lows to the public in 1985, and only black and white shoes band.

The right shoe of this pair of shoes is autographed by Michael Jordan's black long-lasting ink. This is different from the competition shoes he signed with a general ballpoint pen. The handwriting of the latter will fade over time. In addition, these shoes are very well maintained. The creases on the upper are beautiful. The black, red, and white diagonal lines and marks may be due to the collision of the left and right feet of the sneakers when Jordan is worn, or the opponent's sneakers. Michael Jordan wore shoes of different sizes for most of his career. The pair of shoes in this auction had a size of 13 yards on the left and a size of 13.5 on the right, which was half a yard.

In 1984, Michael Jordan wearing red and black color shoes Nike Air Ship caused controversy. In February 1985, the NBA notified Nike that Jordan's colorful shoes violated the league's uniform regulations and prohibited Jordan from wearing. Nike responded to this and launched a classic advertising plan for Jordan’s prohibited shoes. “Although these shoes are banned in NBA games, fortunately, the NBA cannot stop you from wearing these shoes.” Air Jordan 1s This famous "forbidden" ad was launched afterwards, and later established Michael Jordan as the leader of NBA shoes fashion.

Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s e-commerce development director, commented: “We are very happy with today’s record-breaking auction result! At the first sneakers auction in Sotheby’s last year, Nike Moon Shoe set a record for sneaker auctions. The threshold for the second sneaker auction is a bit higher. Before the auction ended, we saw extremely high bid prices, and in the last hour alone, the bid price increased more than twice. Plus the six countries from four continents The strong international bidding power not only shows the strong appeal of Michael Jordan as one of the most famous and legendary athletes in history, but also proves that the collection of shoes is indeed a global growth market."