Someone paid over $200,000 for the Birkenstocks that Steve Jobs wore in the garage where he founded Apple
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- Steve Jobs' used Birkenstocks were auctioned for more than $200,000 on Saturday.
- The auction site said the sandals were "well used, but still appear intact."
- Birkenstocks have skyrocketed in popularity in recent months due to TikTok.
The late Steve Jobs was somewhat of a minimalist.
"He kept very few things," Jobs' estate manager, Mark Sheff, told Insider back in 2016 when a few of Jobs' personal items were up for auction.
His Seiko watch went for $42,000. His black leather jacket was sold for $22,400.
His well-loved Birkenstocks, however, went for just $2,000, Fox 7 Austin reported.
Facebook/Mark Scheff
Since then, the Birkenstocks have circulated through exhibitions across Milan, Berlin, and New York — but the price has definitely risen.
On Saturday, the cork and jute sandals were sold for $218,750 at Icons and Idols: Rock N Roll, a three-day auction held by private auction house Julien's Auctions.
Organizers from Julien's said they were only expecting the sandals to go for $60,000, Fortune reported.
While most vintage items are marked down in price for wear and tear, in the case of Jobs' Birkenstocks, the value was in the damage.
According to their description page on Julien's website, the Birkenstocks were "well used, but still appear intact." The footbed of the sandals retains "the imprint of Steve Jobs' feet, which had been shaped after years of use," and the rubber soles "show heavy wear from use," the page also noted.
Jobs literally dug his heels into the sandals during seminal moments in his journey to Apple. According to Julien's, they cupped his feet as he trekked across the garage in Los Altos where he and co-founder Steve Wozniak built Apple's first computer.
While the hype around Jobs' Birkenstocks is due in part to his glorified status within Silicon Valley, the sandals might have fetched more money this time around because Birkenstocks themselves have skyrocketed in popularity.
The Birkenstock's Boston clog, a closed-toe shoe that's different from Jobs' model, has become a rare commodity in recent months due to TikTok.
In October, the New York Times reported that resellers were charging double the normal retail price of $160 because the shoe was sold out online.
There's an uncanny circularity to it all because Jobs, too, had a special fascination for Birkenstocks.
Margot Fraser, the German-American entrepreneur who founded the US arm of Birkenstocks, told Julien's that "he was interested in where the form comes from. He wanted to know everything about the materials and he was also interested in the technical side."