WNBA Stars Honor Breonna Taylor With a Game-Worn Sneaker Auction

Claudia Miller
·3 min read

WNBA stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are joining forces with Flight Club to use their sneakers for a push towards justice.

Bird of the Seattle Storm and Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury will be auctioning off game-worn pairs in collaboration with the footwear retailer through an Instagram bid to benefit the Breonna Taylor Foundation. The auction started today at 11 a.m. ET and ends on Aug. 21, at 11 a.m. All bids must take place in the comments section of Flight Club’s post about the event and must be placed in increments of $100.

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The winner will be contacted via direct messages and will be sent both pairs of sneakers after proving that the bidding donation has been placed to the Breonna Taylor Foundation.

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More than four months have gone by without the arrest of the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY. In an effort to help create change and continue pushing for justice, we are partnering with @sbird10 and @dianataurasi to auction off their game-worn and signed sneakers customized by @kshaffstallkicks_ . 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Breonna Taylor Foundation. Each shoe bears the names of Black women whom we have lost at the hands of police brutality. We will continue to speak out and say their names until there is justice for Breonna Taylor. The auction begins today August 17th at 11am EST and ends on August 21st at 11am EST. All bids must take place in the comments below. Bids are restricted to increments of $100. The winner will be contacted directly via DM and will be sent both pairs of sneakers upon receiving proof of donation to the Breonna Taylor Foundation. Limited to US residents only. Terms and conditions apply and are available at https://bit.ly/31PtoPC. Join us in making an impact by bidding, sharing and saying her name.

A post shared by Flight Club (@flightclub) on Aug 17, 2020 at 8:01am PDT

Breonna Taylor was shot eight times and killed on March 13 when three Louisville Metro Police Department officers entered her Louisville apartment. The officers used a no-knock search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation, however no drugs were found in Taylor’s apartment, according to reports. The family of Taylor has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the three officers and have also joined the hundreds of thousands protesting for their arrest.

“It’s been 150 days since Breonna Taylor was murdered in her sleep by Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove–and her killers have not been charged,” said Sue Bird in a release. “Too often Black women who die from police violence are forgotten. Let’s say loud, keep demanding justice for Breonna and her family, and SAY HER NAME.”

Both pairs of sneakers up for auction are Nike designs with personalized signatures from both Bird and Taurasi along with hand-drawn quotes from designer Katie Shaffstall with a list of names of the more victims who lost their lives to police brutality.

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