12 Most Expensive Nike Shoes Ever

Our twelfth most expensive Nike shoe is the collaboration between the Cactus Plant Flea Market and Nike Dunk Low. Cactus Plant Flea Market has been known to think outside the box when it comes to fashion, and they certainly made a statement in November 2020. Their shoe is covered in Swarovski crystals, making the release day cost $550 which only increased over the years as all the shoes were picked up. Now you have to spend nearly $19,000 to get them.

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While some would argue that sneakers are not a piece of art, these shoes would most certainly disagree with you. Designed with the graphic and colorful works of French painter Bernard Buffet, the Nike Dunk Low SB Paris sneakers have become a work of art for avid sneaker collectors. Created for the “White Dunk” art exhibition, only 150 to 200 pairs were produced and sold at select Paris stores.

Another iconic collaboration for Nike was with Tom Sachs, who wanted to create a shoe that could be worn every day. In 2012 his dream became a reality with the Tom Sachs x NikeCraft Mars Yard shoe which debuted with a $200 retail price. Over the years Sachs has created a few more iterations of this shoe, but the most avid collectors will only find true beauty in the initial release.

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Seeing red? Well, we are too with our ninth most expensive Nike shoe. Before the Yeezy line and Kayne West’s partnership with Adidas, the rapper decided to collaborate with Nike and released the Air Yeezy line in 2009. With both controversy and intrigue surrounding the drop of Air Yeezy 2 and its red colorway, they immediately soared to high prices with even the receipts pulling in hundreds of dollars.

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Fans of anything spooky or Halloween-related will enjoy our eighth selection, drawing inspiration from one of the most famous horror characters in film history. Since Nike creates a Halloween-themed shoe each year, they chose Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street to be their focal point. Although the shoes never officially launched, there were still 26 pairs created and released in Mexico before getting pulled from the shelves. Now the shoes are a cult classic, just like the film character they’re based on.

These sneakers may have a peculiar color scheme, but it lends completely to the shoe’s name and the message behind them. Only 34 of the yellow sneakers were created and distributed to Nike SB friends and family, never being released for retail. They take inspiration from the yellow lobster, as finding the creature is only one in 40 million, which is why the shoes are swathed in a golden yellow and brown.

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One of the more famous sneaker scenes in movie history is when Marty McFly slips his feet into the futuristic auto-lacing Nike Air Mags in Back to the Future: Part II. After decades of fans asking for the shoe, Nike released the fictional sneakers in two limited drops: one in 2011 without power laces and the second in 2016 with power laces. Both of the drop’s proceeds went towards the Michael J. Fox Foundation, raising more than $6 million for the charity, including the $200,000 for one pair.

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Our fifth most expensive Nike shoe followed the tragic passing of Virgil Abloh. Just months after his passing, Louis Vuitton auctioned off 200 pairs of his most coveted sneaker design: a Nike Air Force One covered in the iconic “LV” monogram and Damier check. The auction supported Abloh’s scholarship fund “Post-Modern” with most of the shoes selling in the low six figures, except for this US size 5 which sold at nearly 25 times the original estimate.

When Nike was still a small company, their co-founder Bill Bowerman proposed to create one of the first-ever performance shoes from Nike. Also known as the “Moon Shoes” due to their waffle-tread bottoms, only about a dozen of the shoes were made and used for the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials in 1972. Decades later the “Moon Shoes” made history again by becoming the first collectible sports shoe at auction, raking in nearly triple what they were thought to be worth.

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This pair of Nike Air Ships briefly became the most expensive sports shoes of all time in 2021 when their auction at Sotheby’s earned $1.4 million. They remain as one of the most expensive pieces of sports memorabilia ever sold, worn by Michael Jordan during his fifth NBA game in November 1984. The Nike Air Ship was the first model Jordan wore in the NBA while they were designing the Air Jordan line, and would be the only shoe that Jordan would wear on the court that weren’t part of his signature line.

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Worn only once, these Nike Air Yeezy prototypes sold for a staggering $1.8 million in 2021 during a Sotheby’s auction. Kanye West showed off these sneakers onstage as he performed at the 2008 Grammys. The sneakers were the first iteration of a new silhouette, featuring a black perforated leather upper paired with a midfoot strap, and a pink “Y” lace lock. The sale broke records for Sotheby’s, being one of the most expensive sneakers sold.

Though priceless may be a weird amount to end on, these Nike shoes deserve the number one spot on our list. When Playstation promoted their new PlayStation 5, they used Travis Scott as the face of their launch campaign. Including all of the normal commercials and posters, Scott even designed Nike Dunk Lows with PlayStation accents to promote the launch. Only five pairs were created and raffled with a surprising clause: you would have to promise not to sell them. With both the rarity and the clause surrounding these sneakers, they have become priceless and nearly impossible to obtain.

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