The "moon shoes" are considered the first pair of Nike shoes ever manufactured. It was designed by co-founder and track coach Bill Bowerman for runners in the 1972 Olympic Games.

A pair of running shoes from 1972, one of the first pairs made by Nike Inc., sold for $ 437,500 (INR 3.01.88,725) on Tuesday, breaking the record for a pair of sneakers at a public auction.

The so-called Nike “Lunar Footwear”, designed by Nike's Bill Bowerman, co-founder and track coach for the 1972 Olympic Games runners, was the first batch in the first auction dedicated to sneakers at the auction house of Sotheby in New York.

Sotheby's said the price was a world auction record for a pair of shoes. The buyer was Canadian investor and collector Miles Nadal, who had previously paid $ 850,000 for another 99 pairs of rare or limited collection shoes offered by Sotheby's.

The highest previous price reached at a public sneakers auction was $ 190,373 in California in 2017 for a pair of signed Converse shoes that are said to be worn by Michael Jordan in the 1984 Olympic basketball final, he said Sotheby's.

Sotheby's, best known for selling works of art worth tens of millions of dollars, partnered with the Stadium Goods street products market to auction 100 pairs of the rarest sneakers ever produced at a company that reflects its rapid growth as objects of collection.

The handmade "moon shoe", with a waffle sole pattern, was one of the 12 pairs that were made and those that were auctioned on Tuesday are the only ones known to exist without using, said Sotheby's.

Nadal, the founder of the investment firm Peerage Capital, said in a statement that he was excited about his purchase, calling "Moon Shoe" a "true historical artifact in the history of sport and pop culture."

"I think the culture and the collection of sneakers are on the verge of a moment of rupture," he added, and said he plans to exhibit them, along with the other 99 couples he acquired in a private sale last week, in his private museum of cars in Toronto.

Nadal's tour included the 2011 and 2016 versions of Nike's "Back to the Future Part II" limited edition shoes, inspired by the 1989 film starring Michael J. Fox, and the limited edition sneakers produced by Adidas, Air Jordan and rapper Kanye. The Yeezy collection of West.

Noah Wunsch, global head of e-commerce at Sotheby's, said the shoe auction brought together art, culture and fashion.