You South Africa – 22 August 2019

In the end Miles won the shoes for a

record- breaking $437 500 (R6,5m).

“I’ve always been an admirer of sneak-

ers but I didn’t know much about it,” the

Canadian told The Guardian.

“I thought this was, in one fell swoop,

the opportunity to have a world-class

collection that I could build upon over

the next 25 years.”

“I am what I would call an SHIT – a

sneakerhead in training.”

A

MONG the shoes in his new

collection are Nike Air Mags,

made famous in the movie

Back to the Future Part II;

the Cactus Jack Air Jordan

for Nike by rapper Travis

Scott; one-off custom sneaksby rapper

Pharrell WilliamsforAdidas; 15 pairs of

Kanye West’s YeezyBoosts;NikeDunk

Low SB Paris sneake

the art of Frenchpain

nard Buffet and m

other rarities design

by hip-hop starsorfo

athletes.

Miles’ winning bid

broke the previous

world auction re-

cord for sneakersin

2017 when $190 373

(R2,3m) was paidfor

apair of Convers

sneakers worn an

signed by MichaelJor

in the 1984 Olympicb

ball final.

Jordan Geller saysheintendstoap

ply to be includedintheGuinnessWorld

Records for thesecondtimeforthe

Moon Shoes sale.

Notbad for a pair of grungy old takkies.

NEAKERS are big business

around theworld.Theindus-

tryisworthanestimated

$55billion(R825nn)andthe

the verge of a breakout moment”, Miles

reckons. And Sotheby’s, best known for

its auctions of fine art, agrees.

Noah Wunsch, global head of e-com-

merce at Sotheby’s, says the sneaker auc-

tion brought together art, culture and

fashion.

“We’re eager to see where this sale

takes us, not only in future sneaker offer-

ings but also in other new luxury lifestyle

areas.”

Miles plans to expand his sneaker

collection to 500 pairs over the next 25

years.

“I’ve always been a collector and an ap-

preciator of beautiful antiques and art

and design. We have a private museum

with cars, motorcycles, antiques, a

library and a whole apparel section of

hats, jacketsandhelmets.I thought this

wouldfitinwellwiththe apparel

urmuseum.”

, who earned his

n the Guinness

rld Records in

12 with 2 504

pairs of sneakers, started collecting

shoes in the mid-’90s.

“I was just buying the shoes I loved,” he

says.

His hobby turned into a collection

large enough to be housed in the now-

defunct Shoezeum in Las Vegas, which

boasted the most comprehensive collec-

tion of Nikes in the world, and was the

world’s first sneaker museum.

Jordan shut the museum down not

long after getting into the record book.

He says having a sneaker museum just

isn’t sustainable.

But he’s still collecting sneakers, and

currently has about 300 pairs.

“At one point I had 600 pairs of brand-

new Air Jordans in my size,” he says. “I’ve

spent millions of dollars on Nikes over

the years.”

Well, they do say you can never have

too many shoes. S

SOURCES: RUNNERSWORLD.COM, SOTHEBYS.COM, STANDARD.

CO.UK, THEGUARDIAN.COM, FOOTWEARNEWS.COM, YAHOO.COM,

REUTERS.COM, ADWEEK.COM, THEUNDEFEATED.COM, WWEEK.

COM, BUSINESSINSIDER.COM, SHOEZEUM.COM, DAILYMOTION.

COM, SNEAKERNEWS.COM, FOOTWEARNEWS.COM, VOX.COM,

FORBES.COM

LEFT and FAR

LEFT: Sneaker col-

lector and trader

Jordan Geller is

the previous own-

er of the R6,5m

Moon Shoes. He

held the world re-

cord for his collec-

tion of 2 504 pairs

of sneakers in

2012, but has since

cut his collection

to about 300 pairs.

ersfeaturing

nterBer-

many

ned

or

r

e

nd

rdan

basket-

heintendstoap-

sectionofou

Jordan,

spotin

Wor

201

YIMAGES, MAGAZINE FEATURES, GALLO IMAGES/ALAMY, GALLO IMAGES/REUTERS$ ( )
second-handmarketforrare
andlimited-editionkicksis
estimatedatabout$1bn(R15bn).

GALLO IMAGES/GETTSneaker culture and collecting “is on

Y

you.co.za 22 AUGUST 2019 | (^87)