Why Michael Jordan's Shattered Backboard Sneakers Sold for $615,000
Plenty of game-worn Air Jordans exist. This pair has something the others don't: a piece of the backboard Michael Jordan shattered in Italy in 1985, still stuck in the sole.
The short version
During an exhibition game in Trieste, Italy, on August 25, 1985, Michael Jordan dunked hard enough to shatter the glass backboard, and a piece of the glass lodged in the sole of his left Air Jordan 1. The shard stayed there, tying the pair to that exact moment. In August 2020, Christie's sold the shoes for $615,000, which it called the top price ever achieved for sneakers at auction.
A record pair that still missed its estimate
On August 13, 2020, a pair of Nike Air Jordan 1 High sneakers in the red, white and black "Chicago" colorway sold for $615,000 at Christie's. They were the top lot of an online sale the auction house ran with Stadium Goods, titled "OriginalAir: Michael Jordan Game-Worn and Player Exclusive Sneaker Rarities," with bidding open from July 30 to August 13.
Christie's said the result was the highest price ever achieved for sneakers at auction. Yet it landed below the pre-sale estimate of $650,000 to $850,000. The full sale offered 11 pairs, sold nine of them and totaled $931,875, so this one pair brought in about two-thirds of the money. To see why, you have to go back to August 1985.
One dunk in Trieste, August 25, 1985
On August 25, 1985, Michael Jordan was 22 years old and had just been named Rookie of the Year. He played in a Nike-sponsored exhibition game in Trieste, Italy, between the local club Stefanel Trieste and Snaidero Caserta, wearing his No. 23 jersey and a pair of his new Air Jordan 1s.
At one point he took off from his left foot, went over an Italian player and dunked so hard that the glass backboard shattered. One account describes the glass breaking into thousands of pieces. A piece of it lodged in the sole of his left shoe, and it was still embedded there when the shoes went to auction 35 years later.
According to reporting by Input, Jordan handed the shoes directly to Gianni Bertolitti, the captain of Stefanel Trieste, after the game, and signed both of them on the inner collar. The pair offered in 2020 came from Bertolitti, the same report says.
Why the glass in the sole drives the price
Collectors of game-worn gear pay for the connection between an object and a specific moment. Usually that connection lives on paper: photographs, letters, a chain of owners. With this pair, part of it is physical. Caitlin Donovan, then Christie's head of handbag and sneaker sales, described it as the original shoe with "an actual piece of the backboard" in its sole.
The shard does not authenticate the shoes by itself, but it turns the story of the dunk into something a buyer can see and hold. Together with the signatures and the Trieste provenance, it ties the pair to one specific game rather than to Jordan's 1985 season in general.
Timing adds weight. In August 1985 Jordan had just completed his rookie season, and the Air Jordan 1 was new. Collectors tend to prize pieces from the very start of a famous career, especially when they can be pinned to a single documented moment. That combination is the likeliest reason bidding went higher than it ever had for a pair of sneakers.
How $615,000 compared with earlier sneaker records
The record it broke was less than three months old. On May 17, 2020, Sotheby's sold a pair of 1985 Air Jordan 1s for $560,000 in an online auction and called it a new world auction record for any pair of sneakers. Before that, the high mark was $437,500, paid for a Moon Shoe in July 2019. In a little over a year, the top price for sneakers at auction rose by more than 40%.
One caution about the figure. Coverage of the sale differs on how the $615,000 splits between the hammer price and the buyer's premium, so the number to rely on is the final price reported after the sale, not any breakdown of it. Some reports also described the shoes as orange and black; the pair that sold is the red, white and black Chicago colorway.
What a shard of glass says about collectible prices
The broader lesson is that a collectible's price often tracks how tightly it can be tied to one documented moment. A pair Jordan wore in an exhibition game would be a good piece of memorabilia. A pair carrying glass from the backboard he broke in that game is the only one of its kind, and the market priced it that way.
Questions people ask
Is there really glass in the Shattered Backboard Jordans?
Yes. Christie's described the pair as having a piece of the shattered backboard's glass in the sole of the left shoe, and reports on the 2020 sale noted that the shard was still lodged there.
Where did Michael Jordan shatter the backboard in 1985?
In Trieste, Italy, on August 25, 1985, during a Nike-sponsored exhibition game between Stefanel Trieste and Snaidero Caserta. Jordan was 22 and had just been named Rookie of the Year.
Were these the most expensive sneakers ever sold at auction?
When they sold in August 2020, Christie's called $615,000 the top price achieved for sneakers at auction. It beat the $560,000 Sotheby's had received for a pair of 1985 Air Jordan 1s in May 2020.
Sources
- Michael Jordan's Trieste Game Sneakers Sold at Auction for Record $615,000InTrieste · 2020-08-16
- Christie's marks new benchmark for sneakers at auctionFashionUnited · 2020-08-17
- Michael Jordan's game-worn sneakers set new record, selling for $615,000WHDH 7News Boston · 2020-08-14
- MJ's shattered-backboard sneakers sell for record $615KtheScore · 2020-08
- Michael Jordan's Game-Worn 'Shattered Backboard' Sneakers Sell for Record US$615,000TheValue.com · 2020-08-15
- The real 'Shattered Backboard' Air Jordan 1s sold for $500,000Input (Inverse) · 2020-08-14
- Slam Dunk! Sotheby's Sets New World Auction Record for Any Pair of SneakersSotheby's · 2020-05-17
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