For many Apple fans, Steve Jobs left some pretty big shoes to fill at Apple when he died. Now someone has paid a record $218,000 for the privilege of knowing just how big those shoes were.
The “well used” but “intact” brown sued Brikenstocks, which Jobs wore in the 1970s and ’80s, set a record for the highest price ever paid for a pair of sandals at auction, auction house Julien’s Auctions said Sunday. The buyer wasn’t identified.
“The cork and jute footbed retains the imprint of Steve Jobs’ feet, which had been shaped after years of use,” the auction house said in the listing on its website.
The sandals, which were saved from the trash by a former house manager, were expected to fetch $60,000 to $80,000, but the final sale price with an accompanying NFT was $218,750, Julien’s said.
The sandals had been in several exhibitions over the years, including one with the Brikenstock company that was attended by Chrisann Brennan, Jobs’ former partner and the mother of his first child, Lisa. She said the sandals were part of Jobs’ “uniform” during a 2018 interview with the German edition of Vogue.
“He would never have done or bought anything just to stand out from others,” she told the magazine. “He was simply convinced of the intelligence and practicality of the design and the comfort of wearing it.”
Jobs died on Oct. 5, 2011, at the age of 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
