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America’s former basketball player Michael Jordan’s six NBA Championship-winning sneakers will be on display for the first time ever. All six sneakers will be displayed under the ‘Dynasty Collection’ by Certified Sports Guaranty (CSG) in a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The exhibition will take place from July 27-31. Notably, Jordan has won six NBA titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 1998.
The former NBA player gave away one of his sneakers as a celebration of the achievement after Jordan claimed his first NBA title in 1991. He continued the tradition through his last championship-winning game. Carefully stored for decades, the shoes are in a remarkable state of preservation, not unlike the day Jordan took them off in the locker room.
“Even after examining the world’s most important collectibles for four decades, the Dynasty Collection had the power to take my breath away,” said Mark Salzberg, Chairman of the Certified Collectibles Group. “For the role, these shoes play in our collective consciousness, how they relate to sports, fashion and celebrity, they are the contemporary Ruby Slippers, only rarer.”
The Dynasty Collection and its six Air Jordans are a direct connection to Jordan, his triumphs and the zeitgeist of the 1990s. When the G.O.A.T. arrived, winning his first title in 1991, he wore the Nike Air Jordan VI, modeled after his Porsche 911. For the Bulls' return to championship form in 1996, he wore the "Bred" with a translucent sole.
For his sixth and final NBA Championship in 1998, he wore an early prototype of the Air Jordan XIV known as "Last Shot," fashioned to emulate the lines of his Ferrari 550 Maranello. All of these are in the Dynasty Collection, in addition to the VII from 1992 (the first without Nike branding), the VIII from 1993 (the "x-strap") and the XII from 1997 (the first with Nike Zoom Air).
Notably, long before his first NBA Championship, Jordan inked a deal with shoemaker company Nike to release a new brand of sneaker: the Air Jordan in 1984. It became an immediate hit as more than $100 million in sales of the shoe were recorded in its first year alone. Today, the Air Jordan and its iconic Jumpman logo remain more relevant than ever, with billions of dollars in new sales recorded each year on top of an exploding secondary market.