Air Jordans made for filmmaker Spike Lee are up for auction after being donated to Oregon shelter

A pair of rare Nike sneakers donated to a homeless shelter in Portland, Oregon, are up for auction and are expected to fetch up to $20,000.

PORTLAND, Oregon. — It was hard to miss the shiny gold Nike sneakers in the pile of donations at a shelter in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year.

They were Air Jordan 3s, size 12 1/2, and one of the few custom pairs ever made for filmmaker Spike Lee. Now they are up for auction, where they could fetch $20,000 to benefit the shelter.

The shoes were dumped anonymously into the Portland Rescue Mission’s donation chute in the spring. A formerly homeless man in the mission’s long-term shelter program found them while sorting donations and told staff about them, according to a blog post on the mission’s website this week.

Nike designer Tinker Hatfield designed the shoes in 2019 for Lee, who wore them to the Academy Awards that year when he accepted an Oscar for his “BlacKkKlansmen” screenplay. The donated sneakers were not Lee’s personal pair, but were among a few made for him to give to his inner circle, the Portland Rescue Mission said.

Hatfield visited the shelter and authenticated the shoes. He also signed a replacement box and donated other Nike products. The company is based in nearby Beaverton, Oregon.

“I’m thrilled the shoes ended up here,” Hatfield said in a statement shared by the Portland Rescue Mission. “It’s a happy ending to a great project.”

The shoes will be up for auction at Sotheby’s until Monday and could fetch between $15,000 and $20,000, according to the auction house. Sotheby’s will waive its fee, so all profits will go to the shelter, which has helped people struggling with homelessness, hunger and addiction since 1949.

The identity of who donated the shoes remains a mystery.