In a hat-trick that combines the tech world, streetwear, and one of the most recognized auction houses in the world, Sotheby’s is selling an “ultra-rare” pair of Apple branded sneakers online for the tidy sum of $50,000.
While the history of the size 10.5 trainers is somewhat obscure, the auction house says they were “custom-made for Apple employees” as a “one time giveaway during a at a National Sales Conference in the mid-’90s.”
While the tech giant did launch a clothing and accessories line in the mid-‘80s that featured everything from umbrellas to hand-blown crystal beer mugs, the sneakers, which were made by Omega Sports and branded with the vintage rainbow Apple logo, have never been sold on the public market.
A similar pair went up for sale at Heritage auction house in 2016 with an estimate of $30,000, according to the Guardian. A few years later, in 2018, Heritage auction house’s director of modern and contemporary art Leon Benrimon told Esquire magazine the shoes were thought to have been a prototype of which there were only two existing pairs.
The collaboration with Omega shoes is just one of multiple joint ventures by Apple, which, according to the auction house, would reach out to leading brands for products that were “outside of its zone of expertise.”
The shoes are not going up for auction but rather are being sold directly through Sotheby’s “Buy Now” marketplace. Luckily for those willing to spend five figures on a pair of impossible-to-find sneakers, shipping is complimentary.