Homeless shelter raises $50k from auction of rare gold Nikes found in donation bin

The shoes were designed for Spike Lee to wear during the 2019 Academy Awards

A Portland homeless shelter has raised $50,800 (£39,900) from the sale of a rare pair of sneakers that were left behind in its donation bin.

The gold Air Jordan sneakers were discovered by employees at the Portland Rescue Mission earlier this year.

They are identical to ones designed for and worn by renowned American film director Spike Lee in 2019.

Shelter employees said they still do not know who made the donation.

At first, they said they thought the shiny shoes, unearthed from the bottom of a bin under other donations, were fake. But sneaker authenticators determined they were real, leaving them in disbelief.

"I wouldn't have guessed in a thousand years that they were going to be the real thing," said Erin Holcomb, Portland Rescue Mission's director of staff ministry, in an interview with the Washington Post.

The sneakers were sold in a Sotheby's auction on Monday, with proceeds going toward clothes and meals for people served by the shelter.

Who put the gold-painted leather sneakers in the shelter's donation chute last April remains a mystery. It was probably not Mr Lee.

The shoes were originally designed by Tinker Hatfield for Mr Lee, who had asked to wear a gold pair of Air Jordans for the 2019 Academy Awards, where his film BlacKkKlansman had received multiple nominations.

Nike later sent the director four pairs of shoes in his size, a 9 ½. The shoes that were donated, however, are a size 12 ½. The shoes were never sold to the public.

Lee said he does not know who donated the shoes, which are not his size

In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr Lee said that he, too, has no idea where the donated shoes came from.

"My foot has never been that big," he said.

Nike's world headquarters are in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland, and many of its employees live in Oregon.

In her 17 years of working at the shelter, Ms Holcomb has never sold a donated item, she said. But she was keen on determining the shoes' authenticity.

After several months juggling work and parenthood, she took the shoes to a Portland sneaker consignment store, where employees quickly determined that they were real.

New York auction house Sotheby's sold them with an autographed box and a poster from Mr Hatfield, the shoes' designer.

It had estimated the shoes were valued around $15,000 to $20,000. When the auction closed at $50,800, the shelter's employees were left in tears.

"I am so glad that we were able to leverage them towards serving more people," Ms Holcomb said.