Some of you people out there are really weird.
When it comes to fashion, Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, is best known for his laid-back uniform of a black turtleneck, jeans and dad sneakers. But the tech giant also had something in common with today's supermodels and TikTok influencers: a love of Birkenstocks.
On Sunday, an undisclosed buyer purchased the well-worn pair of brown suede, two-strap sandals that Jobs wore in the '70s and '80s for over $218,000 — the highest price ever paid for a pair of sandals at auction, according to the auction house Julien's.
Who would pay that much money for a pair of shoes that someone once wore?
I can understand sports jerseys, suits of armor, swords, baseball bats, guns, and the like.
But shoes?
Maybe if they were the pair Neil Armstrong wore to step onto the moon, or the original pair of Air Jordans, or had some other historical significance.
But random dirty sandals worn by a computer geek 40 years ago??
More from CNET:
"The cork and jute footbed retains the imprint of Steve Jobs' feet, which had been shaped after years of use," the auction house said in the listing on its website.
What is this: The Shroud of Turin???
The sandals, which were saved from the trash by a former house manager, were expected to fetch $60,000 to $80,000, but the final sale price, with an accompanying NFT, was $218,750, Julien's said.
The sandals had been in several exhibitions over the years, including one with the Birkenstock company that was attended by Chrisann Brennan, Jobs' former partner and the mother of his first child, Lisa. The sandals were part of Jobs' "uniform," she said during a 2018 interview with the German edition of Vogue.
If you're wondering how Jobs might have felt about someone making a shrine with his old sandals, the next paragraph is revealing:
"He would never have done or bought anything just to stand out from others," she told the magazine. "He was simply convinced of the intelligence and practicality of the design and the comfort of wearing it."
