Rapper Kanye West's sneakers break a record when auctioned for 1.5 million euros

Rapper Kanye West wears Nike Air Yeezy 1 sneakers during his performance at the 2008 Grammys.KEVIN WINTER / AFP

The fever for sneakers, boosted by tons of available liquidity, continues to burn stages. A pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1 sneakers worn by their inspirational rapper Kanye West have been purchased for $ 1.8 million (1.5 million euros), auction house Sotheby's announced in a statement on Monday. . This amount is three times the previous record for sneakers, held since mid-2020 - in the most acute phase of the pandemic - Nike Air Jordan 1, worn by the legendary NBA basketball player Michael Jordan and by which were paid $ 615,000 (510,000 euros) in an auction held at Christie's.

West's sneakers are one of a kind - the first pair to be publicly presented at the 2008 Grammy Awards, where West took home four awards, including best rap album.

At that time it was a mere prototype that later crystallized into a model finally put on sale in April 2009. The Nike Air Yeezy 1 in black leather, size 12 (a European 46), has a strap on the forefoot. and the brand's exclusive Y-shaped medallion in pink.

They were put up for sale by New York collector Ryan Chang.

The auctioned shoes, exhibited at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (China) .JEROME FAVRE / EFE

The owner of the coveted pair is the investment platform Rares, recently founded by former football player Gerome Sapp and which allows individuals to invest in very rare pairs, which they could not buy on their own due to their high price.

The platform works as follows: Rares seizes a collector's pair of sneakers and then puts out a series of shares on sale that allow buyers to get a percentage of the asset, exactly the same as when they buy a share of a company listed or a share of a property in a collective investment platform of the existing real estate market.

Subsequently, these titles can be sold on the same platform and their price depends on supply and demand, as in any other secondary market.

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"By purchasing such an iconic shoe, a piece of history, our goal is to increase accessibility and empower the communities that gave rise to sneaker culture with the tools to gain financial freedom through Rares," said Sapp.

A booming market

The record is a new sign of the vitality of this market, which 10 years ago was little more than a niche market and which in recent times has aroused the interest of both the general public and top-level collectors, who have the price of this footwear skyrocketed.

According to analysts at Cowen, the resale market for collector's shoes could be worth as much as $ 30 billion worldwide by 2030.

Sports shoes have, in fact, become an investment asset for many young people who keep them in their closets or who buy them second-hand in the hope that they will appreciate over the years. To this has been added the absence of investment alternatives for many, which has made this garment an object of desire in the eyes of thousands of people to value their savings and try to ensure a certain profitability.

The Air Yeezy 1 collection was released in limited series in 2009, followed by Air Yeezy 2 in 2012. The Air Yeezy 1 pair is selling today for between $ 2,000 and $ 4,000. West ended his collaboration with Nike in 2013 and brought his brand to Adidas, where Yeezy raised sales by about $ 1.7 billion, according to Forbes. "The sale speaks volumes for Kanye [West] 's legacy as one of the most influential clothing and sneaker designers of our time," said Brahm Wachter, director of streetwear and modern collectibles at Sotheby's.