The most expensive sneakers in the world: the 2026 ranking

The most expensive pair of sneakers ever sold is the Air Jordan 13 “Last Dance” worn by Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals, sold for 2,238,000 dollars (approximately 1.97 million euros) at Sotheby’s in New York on 11 April 2023. However, the absolute record belongs to a set of six mismatched shoes, the sneakers from Jordan’s six NBA titles, sold for 8,032,800 dollars in February 2024. Here is the ranking of the twelve most expensive sneakers in the world, based on results published by auction houses and verified as of 29 September 2026.

In brief

• Absolute record: the “Dynasty Collection”, six Air Jordan worn during Michael Jordan’s six NBA titles, sold for 8,032,800 dollars at Sotheby’s on 2 February 2024.
• Record for a pair: the Air Jordan 13 “Last Dance” from the 1998 Finals, sold for 2,238,000 dollars at Sotheby’s in April 2023.
• Only five sales have crossed the million-dollar mark, and four involve Michael Jordan; the fifth is the Nike Air Yeezy prototype by Kanye West.
• What drives the price: a pair worn during a historic match, authenticated with photographic evidence, signed, and with documented provenance. A new collaboration pair rarely exceeds a few hundred thousand dollars.

Air Jordan “Dynasty Collection” (1991-1998)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Years: 1991 to 1998 · Price: 8,032,800 dollars (approximately 7.07 million euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, 2 February 2024.

This lot brings together six individual shoes, an Air Jordan 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 14, each worn by Michael Jordan during the game that secured one of his six NBA titles for the Chicago Bulls. Jordan gave them, signed, to Tim Hallam, then the club’s public relations manager, after each victory.

This is the highest amount ever paid for sneakers, a record certified by Guinness World Records. Important detail: these are not pairs, but six unique shoes, representing just over 1.3 million dollars each.

Air Jordan 13 “Last Dance” (1998)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1998 · Price: 2,238,000 dollars (approximately 1.97 million euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, 11 April 2023.

Michael Jordan wore this black and red Air Jordan 13 in the second half of Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals in Salt Lake City, where he scored 37 points against the Utah Jazz. He signed it and gave it to a ball boy from the opposing team.

This is the world record for a pair of sneakers sold at auction. According to Sotheby’s, it is also the only complete pair worn by Jordan in an NBA Final to have been authenticated by photographic comparison by MeiGray, the official NBA authenticator.

Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototype by Kanye West (2008)

Brand: Nike · Year: 2008 · Price: 1,800,000 dollars (approximately 1.59 million euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, private sale, April 2021 (exhibition in Hong Kong).

Kanye West wore this black leather prototype, adorned with bright pink “Y” medallions, on stage at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2008, the evening he first presented the future Air Yeezy. Designed with Nike designer Mark Smith, the pair was acquired by the investment platform RARES.

Note: this is a private sale and not a public auction, which explains why it does not appear in some auction rankings.

Nike Air Ship from the rookie season (1984)

Brand: Nike · Year: 1984 · Price: 1,472,000 dollars (approximately 1.30 million euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, Las Vegas, 24 October 2021.

Before the very first Air Jordan, Michael Jordan played in the Nike Air Ship. This pair, worn during his fifth NBA game on 1 November 1984 against the Denver Nuggets, was given to a Denver ball boy. It was the first pair of sneakers to exceed one million dollars at auction.

A lesson in caution: the same pair was resold for 624,000 dollars in September 2023 at Goldin, representing a loss of nearly 850,000 dollars in two years.

Air Jordan 12 “Flu Game” (1997)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1997 · Price: 1,380,000 dollars (approximately 1.22 million euros) · Sale: Goldin, online auction closed on 14 June 2023.

Ill and weakened, Michael Jordan wore this Air Jordan 12 during Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals on 11 June in Salt Lake City, one of the most famous games of his career. He signed it for a Utah Jazz ball boy, who kept it in a safe for fifteen years.

Sold for 104,765 dollars in 2013, the pair has seen its price multiply by more than thirteen in ten years.

Air Jordan 1 with Dunk sole (1986)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1986 · Price: 675,000 dollars (approximately 594,000 euros) · Sale: Heritage Auctions, Winter Platinum Night, 26 and 27 February 2022.

After his foot fracture in October 1985, Jordan received modified Air Jordan 1s, mounted on the softer and wider sole of the Nike Dunk. This signed pair was identified in photos from the game on 1 April 1986 against the Milwaukee Bucks.

This is, to our knowledge, the most expensive Air Jordan 1 ever sold at auction, ahead of the “shattered backboard” pair from Trieste.

Nike Kobe 8 from the “Achilles Game” (2013)

Brand: Nike · Year: 2013 · Price: 660,000 dollars (approximately 581,000 euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, New York, “The One” sale, 7 February 2025.

Kobe Bryant wore these Lakers-coloured Kobe 8s on 12 April 2013 against the Golden State Warriors: suffering an Achilles tendon rupture late in the game, he remained on the court to shoot his free throws.

Estimated between 600,000 and 800,000 dollars, the pair set the record for Kobe Bryant shoes, the only other basketball player in this ranking dominated by Michael Jordan.

Air Jordan 1 from the Trieste “shattered backboard” (1985)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1985 · Price: 615,000 dollars (approximately 542,000 euros) · Sale: Christie’s, “Original Air” online sale, New York, closed on 13 August 2020.

During an exhibition match in Trieste, Italy, in the summer of 1985, Michael Jordan shattered the backboard glass with a dunk. A shard of glass remained embedded in the sole of the left shoe.

The signed pair broke the record of the time despite a final bid lower than its estimate of 650,000 to 850,000 dollars.

Air Jordan 1 from the 1985-1986 season

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1985-1986 · Price: 579,500 dollars (approximately 510,000 euros) · Sale: Goldin, Summer Game Used Auction, closed on 20 September 2025.

Signed twice by Jordan, this pair was photographically identified from the 1985-1986 season, which was cut short by his foot injury. This is one of the highest recent prices for a game-worn Air Jordan 1.

It confirms that the market for historical pieces is holding up, even as the resale of new models has slowed down.

Signed Air Jordan 1 “Chicago” (1985)

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1985 · Price: 560,000 dollars (approximately 493,000 euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, online sale, 17 May 2020.

White, black, and red, sized 13 on the left and 13.5 on the right according to Jordan’s measurements, these game-worn and marker-signed Air Jordan 1s were sold for more than three and a half times their high estimate of 150,000 dollars.

This sale launched the era of sneakers worth several hundred thousand dollars: ten bidders from six countries competed, and the price jumped by 300,000 dollars in the final twenty minutes.

Air Jordan 11 from the 1996 NBA Finals

Brand: Nike, Air Jordan · Year: 1996 · Price: 482,600 dollars (approximately 425,000 euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, “Court Classics” sale, April 2024.

Jordan wore this black and red Air Jordan 11 during Game 5 of the 1996 Finals in Seattle. He signed it and gave one shoe to a SuperSonics ball boy and the other to his friend.

The two shoes, reunited for the sale, were authenticated by photographic comparison, an indispensable guarantee of value in this market.

Nike Moon Shoe by Bill Bowerman (1972)

Brand: Nike · Year: 1972 · Price: 437,500 dollars (approximately 385,000 euros) · Sale: Sotheby’s, “Stadium Goods: The Ultimate Sneaker Collection” online sale, closed on 23 July 2019.

Designed by Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike, for runners in the 1972 US Olympic trials, the Moon Shoe was produced in only about a dozen copies. This pair is the only known one to have never been worn.

Canadian collector Miles Nadal won it for nearly three times its high estimate of 160,000 dollars, to display it in his private museum in Toronto.

Our ranking methodology

This ranking includes public sales or those organised by an auction house where the price was communicated by the house itself or cross-referenced from several sources, including buyer’s fees when the house publishes them. Amounts in euros are converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of 29 September 2026 (1 euro = 1.1355 dollars), and not at the rate on the day of the sale.

Other Air Jordan worn by Michael Jordan have changed hands for between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars in recent years; only transactions that we could precisely verify are included here.

Why such prices

The primary source of value is the match. A pair worn during an NBA Final, a title win, or a legendary evening is worth far more than a practice pair. The first eight places in the ranking all correspond to specific moments in basketball or music history.

Next comes the proof. Auction houses rely on photographic comparison (photomatch), which identifies a pair in game images through its wear, marks, and manufacturing details, as well as signature authentication. A clear provenance, from the locker room to the ball boy and then to the collector, does the rest.

Collaborations and rarity also carry weight: the Moon Shoe produced in a dozen copies, the Air Yeezy prototype presented at the Grammy Awards, or the Air Force 1 revisited by Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton attract buyers from the worlds of art and luxury as much as from the sneaker community.

Finally, the figure of Michael Jordan dominates everything: out of the twelve lots in the ranking, nine belonged to him. His jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 Finals was sold for 10.1 million dollars at Sotheby’s in 2022, placing sneakers within a broader market for sports memorabilia.

The most expensive new pairs

Excluding worn pieces, the record belongs, to our knowledge, to the 1972 Moon Shoe, never worn. Next come luxury collaborations. In February 2022, Sotheby’s sold 200 pairs of the Louis Vuitton and Nike Air Force 1 designed by Virgil Abloh for a total of 25.3 million dollars (approximately 22.3 million euros); the pair in size 5, delivered with its Louis Vuitton suitcase, reached 352,800 dollars (approximately 311,000 euros), twenty-three times its estimate. The proceeds from Louis Vuitton were donated to the scholarship fund created by Virgil Abloh.

In stores, the Air Jordan 1 High Dior released on 6 April 2020 remains a benchmark: 8,500 numbered pairs, made in Italy, sold for 2,000 dollars each. The 2016 Nike Mag, a self-lacing replica of the shoe from the film “Back to the Future”, was never sold in shops: 89 pairs were allocated, mostly through an online draw at 10 dollars per entry, to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which raised 6.75 million dollars from it.

Jewellery-shoes: caution with the figures

Some rankings place creations worth 17 or 20 million dollars at the top. These should be read with caution: they are jewellery-shoes, often pumps, whose price is stated by their creator and not established by a public sale.

Examples include the Moon Star Shoes by Antonio Vietri, in gold, diamonds, and meteorite fragments, presented in Dubai in 2019 with a price tag of 19.9 million dollars, or the Passion Diamond Shoes by Jada Dubai and Passion Jewellers, listed at 17 million dollars and exhibited at the Burj Al Arab hotel. Regarding sneakers, the solid gold Air Jordan 10 created in 2016 by artist Matthew Senna for Drake, estimated at around 2 million dollars, is more of a sculpture than a shoe. None of these pieces appear in our ranking due to the lack of a verifiable transaction.

The resale market in 2026

The market has split in two. At the top, historical pieces remain sought after: Sotheby’s sold Kobe Bryant’s Kobe 8s for 660,000 dollars in February 2025, Goldin sold a 1985-1986 Air Jordan 1 for 579,500 dollars in September 2025, and in April 2026, the house dedicated a sale of 81 lots to pairs worn by Stephen Curry during his 2025-2026 season, where he alternated brands. However, the gaps are stark, as shown by the resale at a loss of Jordan’s Air Ships.

For new models, the euphoria of 2020 has subsided. According to market analyses based on StockX transactions, 47% of 2024 releases were reselling above their retail price, compared to 58% in 2020. The platform notes a recovery in 2025, however: in its annual report published on 12 January 2026, it notes a 5% increase in the average resale price of Nike and 6% for Jordan over one year, with nearly 200 brands at their historical highs.

The new stars of resale come from running and design: Mizuno (+124% sales over one year), Maison Mihara Yasuhiro (+91%), Saucony (+59%), and Salomon (+58%). For collectors, the rule in 2026 is simple: rarity is no longer enough; a documented story is required.

Cover photo: Smithsonian, National Museum of African American History and Culture · Wikimedia Commons, CC0