NIKE SNEAKERS : ''$437, 500 AUCTIONS RECORD''

A PAIR of 1972 running shoes, one of the first pairs made by NIKE, sold for $437,500 on Tuesday, shattering the record for a pair of sneakers at public auction.

The so-called Nike ''Moon Shoe,'' designed by Nike cofounder and track coach Bill Bowerman for runners at the 1972 Olympics trials, was the top lot in the first-ever auction dedicated to sneakers at Sotheby's auction house in New York,

Sothey's said the price was a world auction record for a pair of sneakers.

The buyer in the online auction was not immediately known. The highest price fetched at a public auction for sneakers is thought  to be $190, 173 in California in 2017 for signed Converse shoes said to have been worn by Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic basketball final. [Agencies]