A pair of Birkenstock sandals owned and worn by Steve Jobs, the Apple visionary, was sold for $218,000 on Sunday.
According to Julien’s Auctions, the sandals were worn by Jobs in several iconic moments in the history of Apple, and they were minted on the Polygon blockchain into an exclusive 1-of-1 digital representation. The terms and conditions of the sale show that the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) owner will not acquire intellectual property or ownership rights on the NFT and he cannot profit from the use of the NFT.
The NFT’s estimated selling price of $60,000-$80,000 was exceeded and 19 bids were received. Julie’s Auctions stated that Jobs wore the pair of sandals in the 1970s and 1980s and added that the sandals were previously owned by Mark Sheff, Job’s house manager.
Speaking to Business Insider, Sheff said that he collected Job’s items whenever he threw them out because Apple’s visionary kept very few things.
The Auction house added that in 1976, Jobs “hatched the beginnings of Apple computer in a Los Altos garage with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak while occasionally wearing these sandals.”
Speaking to Vogue, Chrisann Brennan, Steve Job’s ex-partner, said that the shoes were Jobs’ uniform and they reflected his focus on practicality and simplicity.
Steve Jobs’ NFT-linked sandals join the list of other Posthumus digital collectibles that have been sold in recent months, including collections owned by Biggie Smalls, David Bowie, and Whitney Houston’s estates.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are digital objects stored on the blockchain, a public ledger for recording transactions. NFTs represent the ownership of digital and even physical assets. Examples of assets that can be tokenized into NFTs include videos, audio, profile pictures (PFPs), digital clothing, and even real estate. Each NFT is unique and can only be owned by one person at a time. An NFT cannot be reproduced or duplicated, and this makes them suitable for representing the ownership of assets.
