A few years ago, Spike Lee wore a super exclusive pair of gold Air Jordan 3s made by the Jumpman brand for his big night at the 2019 Oscars, and apparently someone dropped them in a donation bin.
Artnet reports that one of sneaker's most holy grails was found in a donation bin at an Oregon homeless charity earlier this year, via an anonymous donor, and will now be auctioned off for a King Kong-sized grab. Who could do that? How did they end up being donated? Are they fake? While the first two questions remain to be answered, the third has already been answered.
Per Artnet:
In a suspension, the Portland Rescue Mission explained how a volunteer found the shoes while sorting through donations falling down a chute. “Obviously they must be fake, we thought, because why would the real thing end up in our donation bins?” said Erin Holcomb, the program director.
Holcomb explained that they took the shoes to a “high-end sneaker retailer” to get his opinion on their authenticity, and that the owner “offered to buy them from me on the spot for $10,000 or ship them to his store for a possible bigger return.” Holcomb did further research and found that another pair had been auctioned by Sotheby's in 2021 and sold for $47,880.
You know when a verifier offers you this kind of money, it's 100% official tissue. Knowing they could fetch much more for the Portland rescue mission, Holcomb arranged with Sotheby's to include the sneakers in their Dec. 18 auction, which featured “some of the most sought-after collectibles and sneakers that there are”.
Not only did the sneakers sell for $50,800 (after expecting to fetch between $15,000 and $20,000), but Sotheby's was kind enough to swing their fee so that 100% of the money went to the Portland Rescue Mission.
You gotta love it.
While we may never know who fell from those chalices in the donation offering, after all, it turned out to be the Christmas present for an important organization.
More than Artnet:
No one knows who donated the shoes. Tinker [Hatfield] has said he is “thrilled that the shoes ended up here. It's a happy ending to a truly wonderful project.”