Old, worn Birkenstock sandals belonging to Steve Jobs sold for record-breaking $218,000 at auction

A pair of old, used Birkenstock sandals belonging to Apple founder Steve Jobs – who popularized the idea of tech executives wearing the same basic outfit in public appearances – were auctioned for a record-breaking $218,750 on Sunday. 

Julien’s Auctions, which conducted the auction, had expected the worn sandals to fetch between $60,000 and $80,000. The buyer was not named. 

The grungy sandals were worn by Jobs in the 1970s and 80s and saved from the trash 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, which is conducting the auction starting Friday, expects the worn sandals to fetch between $60,000 and $80,000

According to the description on Julien’s Auctions: ‘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.

‘During the sandals’ display with Birkenstock company, Steve Jobs’s ex-partner (and mother of Steve Jobs’s first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs) Chrisann Brennan had the opportunity 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.”‘

”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.’ Jobs ex-partner Chrisann Brennan said

‘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 died in 2011 from complications of pancreatic cancer. 

Sheff explained that the collection he ended up with, which included the sandals, was ‘quite random’ in a comment to Yahoo in 2016.   

The sandals were last up for auction in 2016 when they sold to an anonymous party for a mere $3,400.