Kanye West’s Yeezy Sneakers Breaks Record Sells For $1.8M At Auction!

A pair of shoes designed and worn by the American recording artiste, Kanye West has been sold for the sum of $1.8m (£1.3m) at an auction.

It is the highest amount ever paid for a pair of sneakers.

The Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototypes beat the previous record, which was held by a pair of Nike Air Jordan 1s that sold for $615,000 last year.

“The sale also marks the first pair of sneakers to top $1m,” Sotheby’s auction house said on Monday, April 26.

“The sale speaks volumes of Kanye’s legacy as one of the most influential clothing and sneaker designers of our time, and of the Yeezy franchise he has built which has become an industry titan.”

West wore the Prototypes during an emotional performance of Stronger and Hey Mama at the Grammy Awards in 2008, just a few months after the death of his mother. They are a US size 12, or a UK 11.

The shoes were bought by RARES, an internet platform for investing in rare footwear. Its users can buy shares in a pair in a similar way to how investors buy stocks in a company, Yahoo news reports.

They were sold by the shoe collector Ryan Chang in a private sale, which means neither the buyer nor the final sale price can be publicized unless the buyer themselves comes forward.

“The sale marks the highest publicly recorded price for a sneaker sale ever,” the auction house said in a statement.

The Air Yeezy 1 was subsequently launched in a limited series in 2009, followed by the Air Yeezy 2 in 2012.

But in 2013, West ended his partnership with Nike and said his share of the revenue from the shoes was insufficient. He began working with Adidas the following year.

Partnering with Adidas proved to be a lucrative decision. The collaboration generated almost $1.7bn in 2020, Forbes and Bloomberg report.