Source: WWD / Getty
A few years ago, Spike Lee donned an ultra-exclusive pair of gold Air Jordan 3s custom made by the Jumpman brand for his big night at the 2019 Oscar Awards, and apparently someone chucked them to a donation bin.
Artnet is reporting that one of the holiest of sneaker grails found their way into a donation bin at an Oregon homeless charity earlier this year, via an anonymous donor, and will now be put on the auction block for a King Kong sized grip. Who could’ve done this? How did these end up getting donated? Are they fake? While the first two questions remain to be answered, the third already has been.
Per Artnet:
In a blog post, the Portland Rescue Mission explained how a volunteer found the shoes while sorting through donations which drop down through a chute. “Obviously they must be fakes, we thought, because why would the real thing end up in our donation bins?” said Erin Holcomb, the director of the program.
Holcomb explained that they took the shoes to a “high end sneaker resale shop” to get its opinion on their authenticity, and that the owner “offered to buy them from me on the spot for $10,000 or to consign them in his store for a potentially larger return.” Holcomb did further research and found that another pair had been auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2021 and sold for $47,880.
Y’all know when an authenticator offers you that kind of money, they’re 100% official tissue. Knowing that they could fetch much more for the Portland Rescue Mission, Holcomb organized with Sotheby’s auction house to have the sneakers included in their Dec. 18 auctions, which featured “some of the most sought-after collectibles and sneakers in existence.”
Not only did the sneakers sell for a whopping $50,800 (after expecting to fetch between $15,000 – $20,000), but Sotheby’s was kind enough to wave their fee so that 100% of the money could go to the Portland Rescue Mission.
You gotta love it.
While we may never know who dropped off these grails in the donation bid, in the end, it turned out to be quite the Christmas gift for an important organization.
More from Artnet:
No one knows who donated the shoes. Tinker [Hatfield] has said that he is “thrilled the shoes ended up here. It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”
