TL;DR
- A person who is definitely not in the Apple cult just paid $218,750 for Steve Jobs’ old sandals.
- The grubby Birkenstock sandals still have Jobs’ sweat stains.
- The sandals also came with an NFT.
In the Android world, we like to throw around the term “cult of Apple” when describing the fervor some fans have for the brand. Sometimes, it does seem like Apple fans will believe pretty much anything the company says. Of course, we all use the term as a joke and know no cult actually exists.
However, the case for there possibly being an actual Apple cult just got a bit stronger. This past weekend, an anonymous buyer paid exactly $218,750 for a pair of old Birkenstock sandals worn by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. As first spotted by CNN, Julien’s Auction House sold the grubby old footwear as part of its Icons & Idols: Rock ‘N’ Roll Auction.
You can see an old photo of Jobs wearing the sandals at the top of this article. Below, you can see the sweaty suede shoes as they looked when they were put up for auction.
According to the auction house, these sandals were saved by Mark Sheff, who is a former house manager for Jobs. Apparently, Sheff grabbed the sandals from the trash during one of Jobs’ house cleanouts.
Julien’s expected the Birkenstocks to go for around $60,000. However, the Apple cult is apparently strong and the auction quickly blew past that number before landing at the $200k+ final price.
Along with the physical sandals, the auction winner also received an NFT which contains a 360-degree representation of the footwear.
