Kanye West's Nike Air Yeezy 1 is going on sale at $1 million. Picture: Instagram
On Monday, Sotheby’s announced that the pair of Nike Air Yeezy’s which Kanye West wore on stage at the 2008 Grammy Awards during his performance are to be sold for an estimated $1 million (about R14.5m) at auction.
The sneaker is part of a private sale and neither the sale price nor the buyer will be made public.
The sneaker will be displayed in Hong Kong at the Convention and Exhibition Centre and auctioned off by shoe collector and curator of Applied Arts NYC Ryan Chang on 16 April.
The Nike Air Yeezy was the first to be launched by Kanye West’s fashion brand and resulted in much discussion about the unique design and style of the range.
A year later Kanye decided to end his partnership with Nike as it was not profitable enough. Kanye’s Nike Air Yeezy range ended with the Air Yeezy 2 limited series range.
In 2014 Kanye went on to partner with Adidas and then introduced the Adidas Yeezy line, which features a range of sneaker series, including the iconic Yeezy Slides.
His partnership with Adidas was a success, as the Yeezy collection generated more than $1.7 billion in sales in 2020, according to Forbes.