Toronto collector buys 1972 Nike shoe for $437,500

A Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist has paid top dollar for an early pair of Nike racing flats from 1972, shelling out more than double the record amount ever paid at auction for a sports shoe. Miles S. Nadal, who also collects cars, and whose name adorns Toronto’s Jewish Community Centre, paid $437,500 for the trainer at a Sotheby’s auction in New York earlier this month. According to a Global News report, the previous record for an auctioned sports shoe was $190,373.

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The “Moon Shoe,” as it’s known, was the creation of the legendary coach and Nike co-founder, Bill Bowerman. It is believed to be the only one of its kind that was never worn, and one of only 12 pairs made for athletes competing at the 1972 US Olympic trials.

A pair of 1972 running shoes, one of the first pairs made by Nike Inc, sold for $437,500 on Tuesday.

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This was Sotheby’s first-ever auction devoted to running shoes. The company teamed up with stadiumgoods.com to create the auction.

According to the report, Nadal recently bought 99 other pairs of sports shoes for $850,000 in a private sale. He says he plans to display the entire collection, which includes Air Jordan’s, Adidas and items from rapper Kanye West’s Yeezy collection, at his private car museum on the outskirts of Toronto.

The $190,373 shoe (until now the most expensive sports shoe ever bought at auction), sold in California in 2017, was a pair of signed Converse basketball shoes believed to have been worn by Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic final.