The Dior x Air Jordan 1 Was the Most Talked About Sneaker at the Inauguration — and Its Resale Price Has Never Been Lower

Peter Verry
·4 min read

Several storylines came out of yesterday’s inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, including some with greater appeal to the fashion-focused. However, one thing is clear: The most talked about shoe was the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High spotted at the event.

Nikolas Ajagu, the husband of Harris’ niece, Meena Harris, laced up the sneakers. The look made its U.S. retail debut in May after an April launch abroad. The retail price was a staggering $2,200.

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“When Nik was packing for DC he actually asked me whether he should bring Jordans or stick to dress shoes,” Meena wrote on Twitter today. “I didn’t know which Js he was considering, and apparently I was in a jolly mood so I said ‘Do what makes you happy.’ He never followed up either way. Anyway what a great day.”

Following the inauguration, StockX senior economist Jesse Einhorn told FN that bids on the Air Jordan 1 High x Dior were 100% higher as compared to the previous average. But this doesn’t mean a large quantity of the sneaker was sold.

“It was a fairly small number of sales — less than 10,” Einhorn told FN.

Additionally, Einhorn said the inauguration had little to no effect on the number of Dior x Air Jordan 1 High pairs sold.

“There were a small number of sales [after the inauguration], we saw more sales yesterday [and today] than we’d seen in previous days, but it was still only a handful. It was not significant enough to warrant saying, ‘This is because of the inauguration.’ We see a handful of sales of this particular sneaker every day, so it’s important to make sure that if you do see a bump that it’s significant enough to attribute to [an event],” Einhorn said.

But if you’re looking to buy the sneaker, the time may be now to do so.

After its retail release last year, resale prices of the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High skyrocketed. It was the most expensive shoe on the secondary market in terms of resale value in 2020, with sales hitting as much as $13,000, according to Einhorn. However, prices of pairs have dropped consistently in the months since, and there has been a 30% price decrease since the fall.

Now, the shoes sell for an average of $7,000 — still steep, but far less expensive than the summer.

“Typically, we see prices for hype sneakers slowly increase over time, and that is just a function of supply and demand. As demand grows and supply slowly leaves the market with more people wearing their shoes, as shoes get lost or scuffed up or generally the supply of dead stock sneakers decreases, you tend to see an upward pressure on prices,” Einhorn said. “But this was just at a really high price point. When you have a sneaker that’s that expensive, it’s hard to sustain that level of resale value. There’s a fairly small number of people in the world who are willing to pay $10,000 or more for a sneaker.”

He continued, “This is still a very valuable, high-valued shoe, but it’s somewhat more accessible than it was several months ago.”

Looking ahead, Einhorn believes the high prices of the summer for the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High are in the rearview.

“In the near term, I don’t see prices going back up anytime soon. Based on current trends, we will probably continue to see prices at the very least level off and maybe even continue to decline. What we’ve seen since the summer is a pretty clear decrease in resale value,” Einhorn told FN. “This is not a case of statistical noise. The prices really have fallen from their highs this summer.”

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