The shiny, gold Nike sneakers have been laborious to overlook within the donation pile at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this 12 months.
They have been Air Jordan 3s, measurement 12 1/2, and certainly one of only a few customized pairs that had been made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they’re up for auction, the place they may fetch $20,000 to profit the shelter.
The footwear have been anonymously dropped within the donation chute on the Portland Rescue Mission within the spring. A previously homeless man within the mission’s long-term shelter program discovered them whereas sorting via donations and introduced them to the eye of the employees, in line with a weblog submit on the mission’s web site this week.
Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the kicks in 2019 for Lee, who wore his pair to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers weren’t Lee’s private pair, however have been amongst a number of made for him to offer out to his interior circle, the Portland Rescue Mission mentioned.
Hatfield visited the shelter and authenticated the footwear. He additionally signed a alternative field and donated different Nike merchandise. The corporate is predicated in close by Beaverton, Oregon.
“I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here,” Hatfield mentioned in a press release shared by the Portland Rescue Mission. “It’s a happy ending to a really great project.”
The footwear are on public sale at Sotheby’s till Monday, and will fetch $15,000 to $20,000, in line with the public sale home. Sotheby’s is waiving its charge, so all the proceeds will profit the shelter, which has helped folks scuffling with homelessness, starvation and habit since 1949.
The identification of whoever donated the footwear stays a thriller.
