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Steve Jobs’ old sandals up for auction

Updated on: 10 November 2022

Justinas Vainilavičius
Senior Journalist

jobs_sandals — Image by Julien's Auctions

If you ever wanted to walk a mile in a tech genius’ shoes – you can. A pair of old Birkenstocks even retains the imprint of Steve Jobs’ feet.

Julien’s Auctions, which is selling the piece of memorabilia, has set a starting price at $15,000 but expects the pair to fetch anywhere between $60,000 and $80,000 when it goes under the hammer in an online auction.

The distinct brown suede leather sandals had seen better days – probably in the 1970s and 1980s when Jobs wore them regularly.

According to the auction house, the Apple founder was apparently “fascinated” by the practicality of the Birkenstock sandals when the German brand was first introduced in the US.

Each sandal still has original Birkenstock features like adjustable buckles but is “well used” even if appearing intact, the auction house said.

“The cork and jute footbed retains the imprint of Steve Jobs' feet, which had been shaped after years of use. The rubber soles of the sandals show heavy wear from use,” Julien's Auctions noted in the bidding description.

Some wear and tear did not prevent this particular pair from appreciating more than 17 times in value after it was last put up for an auction alongside other Jobs’ items in 2016. It is unclear for how much it sold then, but the starting bid was $850.

jobs_sandals_2 — Steve Jobs wearing sandals. Image by Julien's Auctions

Its previous owner Mark Sheff, a manager for one of Jobs’ estates in the 1980s, told the Business Insider in 2016 that he collected the sandals when his boss threw them out along with some other possessions because “he kept very few things.”

The sandals have been shown off in multiple exhibitions since then, including in Germany, Italy, and the US.

Along with the sandals that Jobs wore “during many pivotal moments in Apple’s history,” the lucky bid also includes a digital representation of the pair in the form of an NFT, and a book called The 213 Most Important Men In My Life by Jean Pigozzi.