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Michael Jordan’s sneakers sell for $615,000, shatter previous record

Jordan had scored a total of 30 points while wearing the size 13.5 shoes, which are in the red and black colors of his Chicago Bulls team.

Michael Jordan's sneakers will be showcased by CSG in a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (File)

A pair of sneakers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan was sold for $615,000 at Christie’s auction house, shattering the previous record set in May. The sneakers that were up for auction was Air Jordan 1 Highs, which the NBA star had used during an exhibition match in Italy in 1985. He had then dunked the ball so hard that it shattered the glass backboard.

“This is the original shoe with an actual piece of the backboard, a piece of glass, in the sole of the shoe,” Caitlin Donovan, head of handbag and sneaker sales at Christie’s, was quoted as saying in an AFP report.

Jordan had scored a total of 30 points while wearing the size 13.5 shoes, which are in the red and black colors of his Chicago Bulls team.

The sale also broke the record set in May, when a pair of Air Jordan 1’s was sold at $560,000, when it failed to breach the estimated price column set between $650,000 and $850,000.

That’s shoe business: Resale market of Michael Jordan’s sneakers a multimillion-dollar industry

The amount of money collected during both the auction resembles the soaring market value of objects identified with the retired basketball superstar. The demand has also increased after the release of “The Last Dance,” a Netflix documentary that chronicles the saga of Jordan and his Chicago Bulls.