At a recent Sotheby’s auction, a rare pair of 1972 Nike ‘Moon Shoes’ set a Guinness World Record as the most expensive shoes ever sold. Those Nike Moon Shoes sold for a record $437,500. This shoe was created by Nike co-founder and then Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman and it was the first instance of Nike‘s waffle sole traction.
You can read all about that shoe, the auction, and why it’s significant here if you’re interested in that shoe and what made it the most expensive pair of sneakers ever sold at auction or anywhere else.
Until this morning, I didn’t realize that the person selling that shoe was a man by the name of Jordy Geller. I thought that name sounded familiar when it popped up in my emails this morning and then I made the connection that he went viral a few years back as the Guinness World Record holder for the world’s largest sneaker collection. So I clicked the email link and saw that Guinness had just re-uploaded this video of his truly insane collection.
This clip isn’t really short but I guess that’s what happens when you have to show off your Guinness World Record collection 2,388 unique pairs of shoes which mostly consists of Nikes. I’d suggest setting this clip to go at 1.5 or 2x speed so you can beast through it and see his absurd collection of sneakers without dedicating too much time in your day to this.
As far as world record collections go, I think I kind of understand this one. Well, I guess I understand the idea of collecting anything if you have a passion for it. So I guess what I’m saying getting at here is I think this is a collection I could see myself getting into versus something like Jack Donaghy’s cookie jar collection on 30 Rock or owning more Trolls dolls than anyone.
I used to also be the type of person that thought guys should only own 3-5 pairs of shoes. Sneakers, brown and black leather dress shoes, flip-flops, and 1 or 2 others. Those days are gone. I’m now overflowing off the four separate shoe racks (3 rows each) in my closet and have a 1-shoe-in-1-shoe-out policy because I don’t have any more room for shoes, so I guess I understand how a shoe collection can get out of hand in a hurry.
Side note: am I crazy for thinking that the world’s largest shoe collection would be closer to 10,000+ pairs instead of less than 2,500? That seems low to me, and it’s a Guinness World Record that’s ripe for getting broken. Also, am I crazy for being an Adidas guy? I just think they make better shoes, both in terms of style and comfort.
For more on this world Guinness World Record sneaker collection, you can click here to see their coverage.