Nike prototype shoe sells for $1,500

An original Nike Waffle Racer which was dug up from Bill Bowerman’s yard was sold this week for US$1,500.

The shoes were sold to Jordan Geller, owner of ShoeZeum in California, an avid shoe collector.

“This is the first real prototype that I’ve ever seen come to market,” Geller told ESPN. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime find for someone like me.”

A man named Jeff Wasson sold Geller the shoe. Wasson works for a utilities company in Oregon and was working in the backyard of Tom Bowerman’s home. Tom lives in the same house his father lived in when he co-founded Nike with Phil Knight. Wasson was helping dig up a tree in the backyard in 2010 when he came across buried trash. The trash included a waffle iron used to make the original shoes and a bunch of prototypes. Most of the recovered memorabilia went straight to Nike, but Tom slipped Wasson one of the shoes.

Geller heard from a friend that Wasson had the shoe and was interested in selling and the two settled on US$1500.