Steve Jobs’ old pair of Birkenstock sandals have been auctioned for an incredible $218,750 on Sunday. He was the trendsetter for tech executives who now wear the same basic outfit in public appearances.
The auction was conducted by Julien’s Auctions. They had estimated that the sandals would go for $60,000 to $80,000 only. This affluent buyer has been kept anonymous.
The simple sandals were worn by Jobs in the 1970s and 80s. They were saved from becoming garbage by Mark Sheff, a chef who managed one of the technologist’s properties in Albany, California, in the 1980s.
‘Steve Jobs wore these sandals during many pivotal moments in Apple’s history,’ the auction house said in the online listing. ‘In 1976, he hatched the beginnings of Apple computer in a Los Altos garage with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak while occasionally wearing these sandals.’
Julien’s Auctions describes, ‘The sandals have been a part of multiple exhibitions, including but not limited to Salone del Mobile in Milano, Italy in 2017, at the Birkenstock Headquarters in Rahms, Germany in 2017, at Birkenstock’s first United States store in SoHo, New York, at IMM Koln, a furniture fair in Cologne, Germany, Zeit Event Berlin for the magazine Die Zeit in 2018, and most recently with the History Museum Wurttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany.’
While the sandals were being displayed at the company, Steve Jobs’s ex-partner (and mother of Steve Jobs’s first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs) Chrisann Brennan was given a chance to view, hold and talk about this iconic staple of his wardrobe while being filmed.
‘She got emotional and excited to be reunited with and hold Steve Jobs’s iconic sandals after three decades. In an interview with Vogue titled ‘Apple Meets Birkenstock,’ Brennan mentions: “The sandals were part of his simple side. They were his uniform. The great thing about a uniform is that you don’t have to worry about what to wear in the morning.”‘
‘She continued, “He would never have done or bought anything just to stand out from others. He was simply convinced of the intelligence and practicality of the design and the comfort of wearing it. And in Birkenstocks he didn’t feel like a businessman, so he had the freedom to think creatively.”’
Jobs left this world in 2011 when his pancreatic cancer got out of control.