Old trainers are huge business in the United States. The right pair of Nike Air Jordans in the right condition can sell for thousands.
However, Apple-branded sneakers? We didn’t exactly have them pegged as the kind of swag people would be willing to fork over the cost of a nice-to-very-nice car to own.
However, even in these uncertain times, a pair of rare Apple sneakers have fetched $10,000 (around £8,200) at auction according to a Gizmodo report. In case you hadn’t heard, Apple launched a limited fashion line in the early 1990s and this particular shoe was a prototype given to Apple employees that never went on sale to the public.
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One pair sold for over $18,000 back in 2017, and now this recently-unearthed pair will be contributing nicely to someone’s retirement fund, thanks to the sale at the Heritage auction house. Apparently, they’re in slightly more used condition than the pair from a few years back, as you can see from the imagery. They are exceedingly 90s in design, complete with what looks like a little air pocket in the heel.
Of course, rare Apple gear is an auctioneer’s dream. A working Apple-1 computer hand-made by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold at auction $905,000 after being snapped up by the Henry Ford organisation in 2014.
Just last year a Macintosh floppy disk signed by Steve Jobs was attracting bids of up to $8,000 online, while a typo-ridden, 1973, pre-Apple job application from Jobs sold at auction $174,757 in March 2018. Last July an original 12-page Apple-1 manual in “very good to fine condition” fetched $12,296.
As we speak, a vintage Apple retail sign is currently up for auction with a starting price of $20,000. The 4ft by 5ft sign is from around 1978 and features the original rainbow logo. So, with that in mind, it probably isn’t too much of a surprise the trainers went for the cost of a pair of Nike Air Mags.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.