$2 Million for T-Shirts? How Supreme and Nike Cracked the Auction Market

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How rare Nikes and Supreme gear has infiltrated the haughty auction market—and generated huge profits

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December 2020, the venerated auction house Sotheby’s hosted an online-only sale of a pair of leather Adidas sneakers. Made in partnership with the 311-year-old porcelain-maker Meissen specifically for the auction, the shoes had been festooned with porcelain overlays and meticulously hand-painted with fanciful motifs from toe to heel, a six-month process that elevated humble sweat repositories to something approaching art. To the highest bidder, the sneakers were worth $126,000.

These extravagant Adidas shoes are among the sneakers and high-end streetwear pieces that have been infiltrating the tony auction market of late. In July 2019, Sotheby’s sold a historic set of Nike ’s “Moon Shoe” waffle-soled sneakers from 1972 for a then-record-setting $437,500. A pair of game-worn Michael Jordan sneakers has since sold for more.

Much of the streetwear now on the auction block was sold via traditional retail shops just a few years earlier—with their auction-hammer prices dwarfing their original prices. Last September, a 2017 Supreme hoodie made in partnership with Louis Vuitton sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $6,048, far more than the $935 it commanded at retail. In October at Bonhams in London, a pair of 2018 Nike x Off-White Jordan 1 sneakers fetched around $2,750, an increase of 1,347% over their $190 retail price.

Treating sneakers as re-sellable assets is hardly a new concept. In the early 2000s Jordan Geller, the founder of sneaker museum Shoezeum, began buying sneakers at California swap meets to resell for profit on eBay . Internet flippers like him built out a big-money market for theretofore overlooked Nikes and Adidas as well as limited-run Supreme gear. Eventually, Mr.

 

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