Virgil Abloh, 41, was one of modern fashion’s most popular designers.
He was known for being Louis Vuitton’s menswear artistic director and the founder of Off-White.
Virgil Abloh gave $50 toward a bail fund for protesters who were arrested amid the George Floyd protests. “The Miami community ~ I’m crazy inspired,” he wrote in an Instagram story, according to the New York Post. “For kids in the streets that need a bail funds [sic] for George Floyd protests … If it heals your pain, you can have it.”
This donation — relatively small if it is in fact Abloh’s only donation — sparked backlash, with many comments on Twitter mentioning the fact that $50 isn’t even enough to buy a pair of socks from Abloh’s Off-White brand. Being one of the most influential black men in fashion, the expectation was apparently that he would express more support for the black community.
Shortly before he posted about his donation, Abloh had been very upset — that one of his friend’s stores had been looted. The designer Sean Wotherspoon, the friend in question, posted an Instagram video of a looted store, prompting Abloh to comment, “you see the passion blood sweat and tears Sean puts in for our culture. This disgusts me.”
Abloh himself posted that the looting was another example of why, as he had previously declared, “‘streetwear’ is dead.”
Keep reading to learn more about one of the most popular — and controversial — figures in the fashion industry.
Virgil Abloh is one of the most popular designers in the modern age. Known for his line, Off-White, he is also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear.
Abloh has recently come under fire for only donating $50 dollars to help bail out protesters that have been arrested during the George Floyd movement.
Abloh wrote on Instagram, “The Miami community ~ I’m crazy inspired. For kids in the streets that need a bail funds [sic] for George Floyd protests, … If it heals your pain, you can have it.”
He then posted a screenshot of the $50 he donated to a bail fund. He made the donation after receiving backlash for attacking looters who broke into the store of one of his friends, designer Sean Wotherspoon. In a comment on Instagram regarding the looting, he said:
“You see the passion blood sweat and tears Sean puts in for our culture. This disgusts me. to the kids that ransacked his store and RSVP DTLA, and all our stores in our scene just know, that product staring at you in your home/apartment right now is tainted and a reminder of a person I hope you aren’t. We’re apart of a culture together. Is this what you want?? When you walk past him in the future please have the dignity to not look him in the eye, hang your head in shame.”
However, Abloh’s small donation sparked more backlash, as many people brought up the fact that $50 isn’t even enough to buy a pair of socks from his brand Off White.
It was also pointed out that the people were arrested for protesting police brutality against black men, such as Abloh. And he was then accused of not doing all he can to help out the black community whose culture propelled him to fame.
It was also noted that other celebrities, such as Chrissy Teigen, have donated as much as $200,000 to help protesters.
In February, New York Times Fashion Director Vanessa Friedman wrote an article asking if Abloh could be considered the “the Karl Lagerfeld for Millennials.”
High-fashion Twitter quickly broke out into group discussions, and the conversation escalated once Virgil responded to Friedman, saying he would like to give a “lecture” on the article because “riffing online is far too low hanging fruit for such an easy and massive ‘case & point.”
Abloh then sent Friedman an image from Joseph Beuys’ 1974 art piece “I Like America and America Likes Me,” in which the artist spent 8 hours with a coyote as a commentary on American society in the 1970s. Beuys said the coyote was America’s spirit animal and that the piece commented on a nation divided along multiple lines, including the Vietnam War and relations between the majority and minority populations.
Friedman’s response: “Am I the coyote in this picture? Are you Beuys? Are these relevant questions?” Abloh did not directly respond to those questions of Friedman’s.
Where Friedman might have a point: Both designers defined and redefined the fashion of their eras.
As Friedman noted in her article,”[Lagerfeld] comes from the couture tradition; [Abloh] built his career on street wear. One saw himself as the caretaker of artistic heritage (under Mr. Lagerfeld, Chanel acquired the specialty ateliers of embroiderers, hat makers and cashmere spinners in order to protect them); one has a keen awareness of himself as a harbinger of cultural change and breaker of boundaries.”
Even Michael Burke, CEO of Louis Vuitton, told Freidman that Abloh is “is digital, like Karl. Cross-generational, like Karl. Hard-working, like Karl. Intelligent, like Karl.”
He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a BS in civil engineering in 2002. He then went on to receive a master’s in architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2006.
According to Vogue’s Steff Yotka, the rumor is that, in 2002, on the day of Abloh’s graduation from UWM, he skipped his final critiques to meet with Kanye’s then-manager John Monopoly.
He told The Cut in 2017 that he didn’t really know he could be a creative full-time. “I felt that a random black kid from the suburbs of Chicago shouldn’t be doing that,” he said.
In his senior year, he took his first art history class, in which he learned about the Renaissance and Italian painter Caravaggio. “It flipped my head backward,” he continued. “I’d spent so much time thinking practical things.”
While finishing his master’s degree at IIT, Abloh said, he saw a building that was under construction by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. This helped spark his interest in fashion.
It was also during this time that he began to design his own clothes, and work on a blog known as The Brilliance.
In 2009, Abloh began a 6-month internship at Fendi in Rome alongside Kanye West.
Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke once told The New York Times that he was “impressed” with Abloh and West and how they “brought a whole new vibe to the studio and were disruptive in the best way.”
He then went on to say that Abloh brought in a “new vocabulary to describe something as old-school as Fendi.” Burke added that he would be following Abloh’s career.
Abloh told W magazine in 2017 that, at the time, they were just “a generation that was interested in fashion and weren’t supposed to be there” and that they “saw this as our chance to participate and make current culture. In a lot of ways, it felt like we were bringing more excitement than the industry was.”
In 2012, Abloh opened his first brand, Pyrex Vision.
As reported by Yotka at Vogue, Abloh had simply taken deadstock Ralph Lauren shirts, screen printed his company’s name on it along with the number 23, and sold them for $550 each.
In 2013, Abloh closed Pyrex and opened Off-White. The company is based in Milan, and focuses primarily on streetwear. Abloh defined the brand as “the gray area between black and white as the color Off-White.”
Off-White is known for its quotation marks around words, as pictured above. In an interview with W magazine, Abloh said he “loved” the idea that Off-White “can be questioned” and said he knew that one day, someone would “critique that Off-White is un-inspirational.”
The brand is sold at Selfridges and Bergdorf Goodman, and has been sold at Barneys and Colette. He also has boutiques in Tokyo, Beijing, New York City, and Hong Kong.
In 2014, Abloh launched a women’s wear line for Off-White, and began to show its collections during Paris Fashion Week.
In 2015, Off-White was named a finalist for the prestigious LVMH Prize, although it lost to fellow designers Marques’Almeida and Jacquemus, respectively.
“Fashion is kinda a joke,” he said in a 2017 interview with The Cut. “I don’t get too bogged down in the clothes. For me, it’s one big art project, just a canvas to show that fashion should have a brand that has someone behind it who cares about different contexts. Social things.”
The year 2017 was monumental for Abloh: he announced a collaborative exhibition with artist Takashi Murakami at the Gagosian, opened his first New York store, collaborated with Warby Parker and Jimmy Choo, and released a shoe with Nike.
“Young architects can change the world by not building buildings,” he said at a lecture at Columbia in 2017. “You don’t have to be a designer to be a designer,” is his contradictory credo.
In 2018, Virgil was appointed artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear. He was also listed as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
“It is an honor for me to accept this position,” he said in a statement announcing his appointment. “I find the heritage and creative integrity of the house are key inspirations and will look to reference them both while drawing parallels to modern times.”
Abloh also designed the outfit Serena Williams wore to the 2018 U.S. Open. This outfit, along with the look he designed for Beyoncé as a choice to wear on the cover of Vogue, was chosen to be on exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Last year, Abloh was chosen to be on the board of the CFDA. He was also nominated for a CFDA Award for Menswear Designer of the Year, for his work with Off-White.
“In my mind, how many more T-shirts can we own,” he told Dazed. “How many more hoodies, how many sneakers?”
He then went on to say: “We’re gonna hit this like, really awesome state of expressing your knowledge and personal style with vintage,” he said. “There are so many clothes that are cool that are in vintage shops and it’s just about wearing them.”
Still, his influence on the industry cannot be denied. The idea that Abloh may become a legend or modern icon is not far-fetched.
The lines between streetwear and luxury were torn down; suddenly, they were one and the same.
Aside from designing, Abloh is also a DJ, a creative and artistic director, and a social media influencer. He also has a collection of famous friends, and many people who aspire to dress, look, and be like him.
In February, The Times’ Vanessa Friedman asked if Virgil was the Karl of his generation. The question prompted a discussion, and even a response from Virgil himself.
Friedman made a pretty compelling case as to why Abloh could at least, in some ways, be regarded as the “millennial” Karl Lagerfeld. Both, she wrote, made their marks “in part by embracing irony.”
“Like Mr. Lagerfeld he has made a community that can seem like a cult of personality around himself,” she wrote. “Like Mr. Lagerfeld, he speaks in rolling sentences and is a pleasure to listen to, especially in a world where the most celebrated names often seem to be tying themselves up in knots at the prospect of answering a question.”
“Mr. Lagerfeld was criticized for doing too much, a lot of it not well enough, as is Mr. Abloh. So far, Mr. Abloh has proved himself best as a designer when building atop a foundation established by someone else,” she continued. “His Vuitton is more interesting than his Off-White, which often seems like a pallid copy of other people’s ideas, just as Mr. Lagerfeld’s Chanel was more effective than his namesake label.”
Many online onlookers were interested in the discussion between Abloh and Friedman.
“This is one of the most subtle & apt analyses from @VVFriedman on what is wrong in fashion today: how modern designers care less about construction & quality, instead focusing on the superficial – like logos or splash to make it Instagrammable,” said Twitter user Senza Tempo.
“This is actually a good article,” said fashion journalist Pam Boy. “I might not agree with it but Ms Friedman made me cogitate.”
Meanwhile, others felt that Abloh and Lagerfeld cannot necessarily be compared.
“Y’all need to stop trying to push this agenda because he isn’t. Even with him being mass produced and overly accessible it does not compare to the craftsmanship. It’s rather insulting,” said one.
“There’s no comparison! Karl’s incredible legacy at Chanel and Fendi, his ability to constantly reinvent while staying true to the DNA of the brands he headed is unmatched by anyone living or dead!” commented another.
It doesn’t seem as if Abloh agreed with Friedman’s assessment. Instead, he said he would like to give a lecture about her article one day.
We don’t know exactly what Abloh’s lecture on Friedman’s piece would discuss, but it may seek to dissect the notion that he is the heir to a legacy he never claimed to want, that he can lay claim to a title he has never sought to have.
As controversial as he might be in terms of his fashion and design decisions, perhaps Abloh wants a claim to his own name, his own title, his own throne, in a fashion empire that he built.
Abloh didn’t respond to Friedman’s last question, leaving her main point floating, unanswered, in the air: “Mr. Abloh may not be the Lagerfeld heir we want. But he may be the Lagerfeld heir we have made.”
All greats are similar in the fact that they are great. Perhaps Virgil Abloh is just the Virgil Abloh of his time.
The Yeezy hoodie delivered the most sales in a single day in Gap.com’s history, Gap said.
It’s the second product in Kanye West’s 10-year deal with the 52-year-old retailer.
The first item, called the Round Jacket, is being resold for two or three times its original price.
Kanye West’s collaboration with Gap is paying off for the 52-year-old retailer.
Gap reported its third-quarter earnings results Tuesday, missing on both earnings per share and revenue and revising its full-year outlook as global supply chain hold-ups continue to delay products. But one bright spot in Gap’s earnings was its partnership with Kanye West’s Yeezy brand.
On September 29, Yeezy Gap rolled out a $90 cotton hoodie in six colors for both kids and adults. It sold out in a matter of hours, and Gap said Tuesday that the hoodie delivered the most sales in a single day in Gap.com’s history.
The majority of the customers who bought the hoodie — 70% — were new to the brand, Gap said.
The hoodie was the second product West has created as part of the partnership — the first Yeezy Gap product, a cotton puffer called the Round Jacket, came in red, blue, and black and retailed for $200. Like the hoodie, the jacket was only available for preorder, and resellers are now offering it up for twice or three times as much as the original price.
West, who famously worked at a Gap store in Chicago as a teenager, signed a 10-year deal with Gap in 2020 with the promise to create men’s, women’s, and kids’ apparel. Wells Fargo analysts estimated earlier this year that the collaboration could bring in roughly $1 billion in sales in the first year.
While terms of the deal were never disclosed, West told actor and podcast host Nick Cannon in September 2020 that his net worth nearly doubled, from $3.3 billion to $5 billion, after signing with Gap.
Kanye West’s apparel brand is heading back to court, this time over shipping delays.
Yeezy failed to ship products within 30 days, violating California’s business code, the state says.
Meanwhile, the supply-chain crisis at LA ports continues to cause shipping delays across the US.
Kanye West’s apparel brand Yeezy was hit by a lawsuit from the State of California on Friday, alleging illegal shipping delays.
California says Yeezy “repeatedly violated” the state’s business code “by failing to ship items within thirty days and failing to provide adequate delay notices to California consumers, or provide an offer of a refund,” according to the lawsuit.
California’s business code states that if a company does not ship products ordered online within a 30-day timeframe, it must provide a refund, send “equivalent or superior replacement goods,” and send the customer a written delay notice.
Regardless of whether Yeezy shipped items on time, fans of West’s popular and pricey sneakers may be disappointed by lengthy shipment times referenced throughout the suit. The supply-chain crisis concentrated in California’s ports continues to cause disruptions across the country.
The musician has not commented on whether or not Yeezy is experiencing shipment delays, and did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Yeezysupply.com, the domain listed in the suit, says customers should “allow 2-3 business days for your order to process and 3-5 days to ship.”
While West collaborated with Adidas to sell Yeezy apparel, Adidas was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
However, the Adidas website does include a disclaimer on shipment times: “Due to the coronavirus’s impact and the mandates in place, your order may experience a shipping delay. This delay is due to several factors, including travel restrictions, available staffing, and/or federal/state/local mandates.”
In August, Adidas’ Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer told journalists that supply chain constraints could cost the sportswear brand as much as $580 million in sales by the end of the year, according to a Financial Times report.
Early this summer, the musician’s legal team candidly argued that Walmart “certainly knows, as does the consuming public, that the last thing [Yeezy] wants to do is associate itself with [Walmart].”
A few months after the feud, West sued Walmart over ‘virtually indistinguishable’ knockoffs of his foam Yeezy shoes, Insider’s Grace Kay previously reported.
Kanye West has moved into the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, a stadium spokesperson confirmed with Insider on Monday.
Last week, a crowd of 42,000 people filled the stadium to hear select songs from West’s new album “Donda” at the rapper’s listening party. Millions of listeners tuned into Apple Music’s exclusive live stream of the event.
West was reportedly so inspired by the crowd that he never left, TMZ first reported – and he plans on staying there until the album is completed.
Donda, named after the artists’ mother Donda West, was originally set to be released on July 23. A representative told Pitchfork on Monday that the new release date has been officially pushed to August 6.
On Saturday, fans spotted Kanye still dressed in his performance get-up at the Atlanta United soccer game. TMZ said that West and his team have created a living area and studio inside the stadium where a personal chef is available to prepare meals.
“We’ve been able to accommodate his needs while he’s with us,” a stadium spokesperson told Insider.
Kanye West may have just given us a sneak peek at another item from his hotly anticipated collaboration with Gap.
The rapper and Yeezy founder was spotted Wednesday at the Balenciaga Fall 2021 Couture show in Paris, the legendary design house’s first couture collection since the 1960s, led by designer Demna Gvasalia.
West took in the show with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, NBA star James Harden, rapper Lil Baby, and model Bella Hadid while wearing a face-obscuring hood – a new wardrobe staple for West – black pants, Yeezy Foam Runners, and a black jacket that looks identical to the one Gap unveiled last month:
The $200 jacket, which Gap has only displayed in a vibrant blue colorway so far, is the first product created in collaboration with West’s Yeezy brand. Gap made it available for preorder last month, and the rush to lay claim to the jacket initially crashed the site. (Multiple reports claimed the jacket had sold out, but there was no finite number of jackets, just a limited preorder window.)
A spokesperson for Gap did not immediately respond to questions about the jacket and whether the black version is part of the collection. But in videos posted of West from the show, the jacket appears to be made from the same shiny fabric and have the same rounded shape. Like the Gap version, West’s jacket doesn’t appear to have any button or zipper closures.
Despite the long lead time before launching the first item in the collection, Gap CEO Sonia Syngal said during a company earnings call earlier this year that partnerships like the one with West are expected to have “very big potential for us.”
Kanye West sued Walmart on Thursday, accusing the retail giant of selling knockoff versions of his Yeezy Foam Runners.
The billionaire’s lawsuit alleges that Walmart has been profiting off his name by selling foam sliders that look “virtually indistinguishable” from his Yeezy Foam Runners. West is suing to have the shoes removed from Walmart’s site, as well as for monetary damages. The suit said the Yeezy brand is worth ‘billions’ of dollars and the company believes it has suffered damages in the “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
When West’s slip-on foam sneakers were introduced in 2019 for $75, they garnered some ridicule, with some people comparing the shoes to Crocs on social media. Nonetheless, the shoes quickly sold out and have since been resold for up to three times there original price, while the Walmart shoes were selling for around $20 to $30, according to documents filed in a Los Angeles court.
The lawsuit said that West has built the Yeezy brand off of his success as an American icon and Walmart is profiting off his image, pointing to celebrities, including his former wife Kim Kardashian and other public figures like Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg, who have been photographed wearing Yeezy shoes.
The Yeezy brand said in the suit that the shoes caught its attention when posts on numerous social-media sites started taking off by advertising that people could buy the shoes, that some users called “budget Yeezys,” on Walmart’s website. The lawsuit argues that the Walmart shoes would not have sold if they had not been recognized as similar to Yeezys.
The Yeezy brand initially reached out to Walmart on Wednesday to pull the shoes from their online marketplace, but said as of its court filing date on Thursday that Walmart had failed to pull the product.
A Walmart spokesperson told Insider the company is actively reviewing the claim. An Adidas spokesperson declined to comment.
“The product referenced in the complaint is not sold by Walmart, but rather by third-party Marketplace sellers,” the Walmart spokesperson said.
As of Friday, Insider was unable to find the foam runners on Walmart’s website that were pictured in the lawsuit, as well as the initial TMZ report. The shoes were be sold by third-party sellers, including sellers listed as Daeful and LUXUR. The lawsuit said Yeezy had identified up to 10 sellers on the site, but had not been able to ascertain their identity. Insider has attempted to reach out to Daeful, and was unable to find contact information for LUXOR.
West said the “subpar” Walmart shoes have not only cut into Yeezy’s market share, but have also impacted the brand’s reputation, pointing to reviews on the site that say the imitations shoes are “garbage” and “ripped after 20 minutes.”
Thursday’s suit comes a few months after a dispute between West and Walmart over a logo that the rapper wants to use for Yeezy. Walmart said it had reached out to the Adidas brand five times over concerns that Yeezy’s new logo was too similar to Walmart’s own logo and would “create a false affiliation” between the two brands that could damage Walmart’s “goodwill.”
At the time, a Yeezy representative did not respond to a request for comment from Insider, but people close to West have said it is unlikely that Yeezy would try to affiliate the brand with Walmart’s image.
West and Adidas announced the two would partner in 2013, in a deal reportedly worth $10 million at the time. Bloomberg reported Yeezy has a valuation of $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion, per investment bank UBS, due to the lucrative partnerships with Gap and Adidas. The partnership with Adidas, Bloomberg notes, runs through 2026.
Social media users pointed out the Nike shoes, and speculated whether he was in breach of the Adidas contract or announcing an end to the partnership.
West has ownership over the Yeezy brand, but Adidas operates the website his shoes are sold on. Yeezy x Adidas sneaker sales amounted to $1.7 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg, netting West with $191 million in royalties.
West’s first sneaker, the $245 limited-edition Air Yeezy, was released in collaboration with Nike in 2009. The shoe later sold on the resale market for thousands of dollars, and a prototype of the shoe with a value of more than $1 million could become the priciest sneakers ever sold.
Some analysts and insiders consider Yeezy one of the most influential sneaker brands ever, reportedly inspiring the now-popular shoe brand Allbirds, Insider’s Mary Hanbury reported.
Nike, Adidas, and a representative for Kanye West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Walmart has filed a complaint to the US Patent and Trademark Office, claiming a proposed logo design for Kanye West’s Yeezy brand looks too much like the retail giant’s own logo.
In its complaint, filed last week and reported Tuesday by Bloomberg, Walmart argued that Yeezy’s proposed design “is likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception” among consumers, potentially causing them to mistakenly associate Yeezy’s products with Walmart.
Yeezy’s proposed logo consists of eight three-dot spokes radiating outward in a star-like pattern. Walmart’s logo, which the company has used since 2007, has six solid spokes with rounded ends.
Walmart claimed consumers’ potential “false affiliation” between the two brands could “injure and damage” Walmart and the “goodwill” associated with its own brand.
Representatives for West and Yeezy did not respond to requests for comment.
Yeezy, a shoe collaboration between West and Adidas – and soon to include a clothing collaboration with Gap – has helped make West the richest Black American in history. The collaborations are reportedly worth a combined $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion, while West is now worth an estimated $6.6 billion.
Walmart, which said in its complaint that it also collaborates with celebrities, had a market cap of $389.3 billion when markets closed on Tuesday evening.
In 2008, Kanye West wore high-top black Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototypes on stage at the Grammy Awards, where he performed “Stronger” and “Hey Mama.” Now, those same sneakers have sold for $1.8 million to RARES, a sneaker-investing platform. The shoes are the prototype of West’s Yeezy line, and they’re the most expensive sneaker sale ever recorded.
The pair of Yeezy sneakers was the first recorded shoe sale to top $1 million, according to New York-based auction house Sotheby’s. The sneakers were the first-ever shoe in West’s Yeezy line, which, in the years since, has contributed to West’s becoming a billionaire and a major player in sneaker and streetwear culture.
Ryan Chang, who listed the shoes at Sotheby’s and collects and curates streetwear under the handle of @applied.arts.nyc, worked with Sotheby’s on the sale to RARES.
RARES will launch sales of shares of the sneakers on June 16, according to the platform’s website, which entreats users to “own a piece of the world’s most valuable shoe.”
RARES said that users can “reserve a spot” to buy shares of the valuable sneakers. Users create an account and are notified when shares of the shoe open up for sale. RARES sells these and other sneakers as SEC-approved investments and allows for collective ownership of the shoes.
Shares of shoes sold on the platform usually run between $15 and $25, according to the company. Gerome Sapp, the CEO of RARES, said in a press release that acquiring the Yeezys worn by West would allow “millions of individuals the ability to now invest in the culture.”
The Yeezy prototypes dethroned another Nike Air model for the title of most expensive sneakers sold at auction – the Nike Air Jordan 1s signed and worn during a game by basketball star Michael Jordan. They sold in May of 2020 at Sotheby’s for $560,000.
The shoes that spawned Kanye West’s sneaker empire are going up for sale at the historic Sotheby’s auction house.
The Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototypes are expected to sell for over $1 million, according to Sotheby’s estimates, making them the most expensive sneakers to ever hit the market.
The shoes represent the first Yeezy sneakers ever worn in public by West when he debuted them at the Grammy Awards in 2008 during his performance of “Hey Mama” and “Stronger.” The shoes feature a faded Nike swoosh, alongside West’s signature Yeezy strap.
The sneakers will be sold in a custom wooden box that features a design from the shoe’s designer, Mark Smith.
The size-12 shoes will be on display at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center from April 16 through 21 and will be available for private sale through Sotheby’s site after the exhibition.
West’s 2008 Grammy moment created a buzz among sneakerheads and, ultimately, helped West achieve a billionaire status in 2020. Sneaker collector Ryan Cheng, who is listing the shoes for the private sale, said in a press release that the shoes encapsulate a cultural movement.
“There he was, Kanye West, on stage at the Grammys, winning 4 awards just that evening, and unveiling an incredibly important and iconic design in Nike’s storied history,” Cheng said.
The highest known sneaker sale to date was a pair of autographed Nike Air Jordan’s that were worn by Michael Jordan in 1985, according to CNN. The shoes sold for $615,000 in 2020 on Christie’s site.