A rare pair of custom Air Jordan 3s made for film director Spike Lee sold for $50,800 at Sotheby's after the sneakers were found in a donation box at an Oregon homeless charity earlier this year.
The gold-painted Air Jordan 3, one of the few pairs made for the filmmaker by Nike's Tinker Hatfield, was created for Lee to gift to his inner circle. A pair was worn by Lee when he accepted the Oscar for “BlacKkKlansman” in 2019. Spike Lee and Tinker Hatfield's names are embroidered on the size 12.5 shoes and also feature the logo of Lee's production company, 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks , founded in 1979.
The sneakers were found in April at Oregon's Burnside shelter, run by the Portland Rescue Mission. The charity was founded in 1949 and provides food, shelter, clothing and addiction recovery programs for people struggling with homelessness.
In a blog post, the Portland Rescue Mission explained how a volunteer found the shoes while sorting donations going down a ramp. “Obviously they must be fake, we thought, why would the real ones end up in our donation boxes?” said Erin Holcomb, program director.
Holcomb explained that they took the shoes to a “high-end sneaker resale store” to get an opinion on their authenticity, and that the owner “offered to buy them outright for $10,000 or consign them to his store.” for a potentially higher return price.” Holcomb did more research and discovered that another pair was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2021 and sold for $47,880.
The pair went up for auction with an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000 and sold for $50,800 after some last-minute bidding. Sotheby's has waived its fee so that 100% of the money raised will go to the Portland Rescue Mission.
Nike previously released the Jordan Spiz'ike footwear line as a tribute to Michael Jordan and Spike Lee's relationship, part of what Sotheby's called “Spike Lee's ongoing love affair with all things Nike and Jordan Brand.” Lee filmed Nike commercials for Air Jordans in 1990, playing the character Mars Blackmon in his 1986 film, “She's Gotta Have It.”
The shoes were anonymously donated to the Portland Rescue Mission earlier this year. Tinker said he is “thrilled the shoes ended up here. It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”
Source: Artnet News