Welcome to the 90th insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode we document the history of the “eBay” Dunk, a $30,000 sneaker with a priceless story.
The tale of the “eBay” dunk has four parts (literally). To begin, we must tread back to May 9th, 1999, to the day news broke of skateboarder Tim Brauch’s unexpected death. The San Jose legend passed from cardiac arrest at the age of 25, sending shockwaves through the skate community and California street scene.
In an attempt to honour Brauch, Nike teamed up with the Tim Brauch organisation to build and revitalise skateparks in the Portland area. To fund the endeavour, Nike enlisted eBay as their auction house, and proceeded to design the most sought after Nike SB Dunk of all time - the “eBay” Dunk. Coming in a palette of red, blue, green and yellow, the low silhouette would feature a glossy exterior and play on the eBay logo, as well as a white midsole and red outsole.
Conditions were applied in that the winner of the auction would receive the sneaker in their exclusive size, produced as a 1/1. In August of 2003, the bids climbed to $26,000 USD, which was a staggering price point nearly two decades ago. However, the buyer remained anonymous, igniting a fury of unconfirmed rumours that a higher-up at the corporation was behind the purchase.
Once payment had been confirmed, Nike destroyed the only other sample that was used for display on auction. With documentation, the SB was sawed into four quarters and appeared to render the sold iteration as the rarest production Dunk ever… or so we thought.
Over 15 years later, Sandy Bodecker, the creator of the “SB” Dunk, posted to Instagram with the simple caption, “So these are my rarest SB’s one of a kind eBay Dunks...designed by @johnnymartinboy”. Accompanying such a foreboding statement was a picture of the grail-worthy sneakers, gifted to the Nike forefather as a departing gift.
But wait, there’s more! Four days ago a new iteration of the classic “eBay” dunk was posted to @bodeckerfound, gearing up for a potential re-edition later this year.
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