Chatting with Rally Rd's Rob Petrozzo About the Sotheby's Jordan Dynasty Collection

Michael Jordan fans get in here quick. Sotheby’s auction house has unveiled its latest sports memorabilia auction for the Dynasty Collection, six Nike Air Jordan sneakers that Michael Jordan wore himself during the NBA championship games the Chicago Bulls won in the 1990s. As time goes on, it becomes more and more prevalent that collectibles items such as these are not only a rarity, but a valuable piece of sports and cultural history. Now if you are reading this article, you are probably well aware of just how valuable these sneakers are and what they represent, but we thought it would be extra cool to hear from Rob Petrozzo, founder of the first investment platform for blue-chip collectibles Rally, to learn more.

Rally recently broke the record for selling the Air Jordan “Concords” for $92,000, so we were eager to find out just why the Dynasty Collection is the Holy Grail of sneaker collections. You can check out the interview below.

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ONE37pm: Alright Rob, you’re the mastermind here. I know the Jordan Dynasty Collection is popping, so tell us everything we need to know.

Petrozzo: First let me say that we keep up with ONE37pm, and what you guys do well is tying stuff to specific cultural moments and events. The Dynasty Collection touches on everything, and it’s important for a number of reasons the first being the scarcity and relevance to Michael Jordan. There’s this whole generation that looked to him as this hero and larger than life figure, and there are specific moments attached to that. However, to get anything from those specific moments is so rare, expensive, and they come up so sporadically at auctions. So when you see a whole collection together, and it’s on the main stage and getting so much attention and conversation is increasingly rare. You might get one or two pieces whether it’s a championship ring or game worn item, but you rarely get something like this. And then from a relevance standpoint, Jordan as a brand has kind of disconnected from Jordan the athlete.

To me, it’s both because I grew up watching Jordan even though I was really young, but then I also grew up in the era when sneaker culture really took over, and it was the zeitgeist to every conversation. Every kid wanted to start flipping sneakers, and Jordan was always at the top. That was always the item that people cared most about. It was and still does command the most on the secondary market. So with the Dynasty Collection you have the Jordan brand/name, and the legacy of these six sneakers.

ONE37pm: In your words, break down these six sneakers. 

Petrozzo: To me, it starts and ends with one very specific pair which are Jordan 11s. When those came out, it was during an era where Jordan was really hitting his peak. It was also an era that represented everything that would happen in the 90s. The 11s were patent leather and it was the mix of material that you had never seen before. They kind of looked like a dress sneaker, and it just took over. That was around 1996 I believe, which was also a coming of age moment for sneaker culture. The Jordans that came out around 1997 are the 12s, and then the ones that followed in 98 are the 14s. Those are also kind of like the last run of the Jordans as they were the ones that came out that M.J. was actually playing in.

The earlier ones from 1991, 92, and 93 championships were the 6s, 7s, and 8s, which was a defining moment where everyone was connected to those shoes and waiting to see what the next ones would look like. They were also the sneakers that started basketball players wearing these sneakers outside of the court. The last three from 96, 97, and 98 were the ones that cemented it. By that point it had almost nothing to do with Jordan anymore because they were the coolest thing that you could possibly wear, and if you happened to be playing basketball in what’s now in the grail collection when it came out during retail, you were almost looked at as a sociopath or maniac because they were so expensive and hard to get. This set in particular is when Jordans went from being for utility to something that you use as a social cue to say that you made it.

ONE37pm: So are any of these replications of sneakers from certain moments like “The Shrug?”

Petrozzo: Yeah so the “Shrug” game is in the 12s I believe, which again when you look at the color combinations in these sneakers, the 11s in particular, the Bred 11s with the all black and red bottoms are from such specific moments. Jordan in particular has so many of those, but there’s only a couple of those that are really specific, and that’s Flu Game Jordan and Shrug Jordan, which are the 12s. Then there’s a couple of things he did with 11s which are patent leather, and the 3s which are the ones he did for the dunk contest. That’s the thing with Jordans, you can always tie it back to specific moments even when the color combination isn’t exact. You have the new generation of fans who saw the documentary, and they can immediately identify each sneaker.

That’s the beauty of Jordan with this Dynasty Set. Two different groups of people that can get excited about it. You have those like me who are getting to their 40s who grew up with Jordan and have a little bit of money to spend, and then you have the sneaker collectors who look at the silhouette over Jordan the person as this piece of cultural history. Seven of the top ten sneakers ever sold are Jordans, and there’s a reason for that. It’s something that will live way beyond Jordan and the generation that watched him play.

ONE37pm: What makes this collection so special?

Petrozzo: The 91, 92, 93 Jordan sneakers were the ones where it was almost dangerous to wear because you would think someone was going to rock them all off your feet. Then it changed into people viewing them as collectors items—so to speak. It’s not just that they are from this legendary run of three peats, but that they really did symbolize what would start the modernization of sneakers. This set in particular is what changed Jordans and turned them into an investment, and that’s when kids started treating them as this status symbol. My whole generation looks at these sneakers the same way. And then you see this inscription on them along with the perfect condition they are in, and it’s so rare for sneakers that are 30 or 40 years old. It hits on every point you can possibly think of when it comes to sneakers.

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