Portland Rescue Mission strikes gold with the donation of a pair of rare shoes

Portland Rescue Mission receives thousands of pounds of donated clothing every year, which they then redistribute to people in need. Most of that clothing is lightly used and is more about keeping warm than looking flashy. So when one of the workers sorting donations spotted a bright gold pair of new Nike Air Jordan 3 sneakers, they took notice. It turns out those shoes are one of only 4 or 5 custom sneakers made for director Spike Lee and his friends. The auction house Sotheby’s values the shoes at more than $10,000. Erin Holcomb, director of staff ministry at Portland Rescue Mission, joins us to talk about what this shoe donation will mean for the organization.

Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. A golden pair of Nike Air Jordans were dropped down the donation chute at the Portland Rescue Mission’s Burnside shelter earlier this year. It turns out they are an incredibly rare design, one created for Spike Lee for the 2019 Academy Awards. Sotheby’s says they are worth more than $10,000, maybe a lot more. We’re going to know soon just how much collectors are willing to pay because they are at auction right now. It closes this coming Tuesday, if you’re interested. The full proceeds of the sale will go to the Rescue Mission. Erin Holcomb is the director of staff ministry at Portland Rescue Mission and she joins us now. Welcome to the show.

Erin Holcomb: Thanks so much for having me.

Miller: Can you describe what these shoes look like?

Holcomb: Yeah, so they’re hard to miss. When they were in our donation bin, I think the reason that they stood out was because they are gold ‒ bright gold, every surface. Inside is bright red, like red carpet red. So they’re pretty noticeable when you see them, but they look really cool.

Miller: Who found them?

Holcomb: So in our Burnside shelter, we have a lot of services for people who are experiencing homelessness, but we also provide short and long term shelter for people who need a safe place to stay while they’re getting their feet back under them. And so a gentleman named James who’s been part of our program there was sorting through donations just as part of his work to give back. What he does is set aside shoes and clothes for us to immediately distribute. So he was going through this bin, and among all of the gently to well-used items that we give out, he saw this brand new pair of gold Air Jordans and set them aside.

Miller: What can you tell us about James?

Holcomb: James has a really amazing story. He, for many years, struggled with addiction and was actually living outside for quite a while. He didn’t have a place to stay, but was able to get into a short term detox program. And when he came out of that, he didn’t know where to go. A volunteer at that center said ‘you should go to Portland Rescue Mission. I know they have places you can stay.’ And so he came to our Burnside shelter and was able to get that temporary housing with us that he needed in order to get stabilized.

Miller: So he had an eye for these bright shoes, it seems like on some level they were hard to miss. But what might have happened to them if he hadn’t been there and if someone else had said ‘alright, some sneakers, I’ll do what I always do with him.’ What are the various alternate scenarios?

Holcomb: We give out a lot of clothes and sneakers during the year. I think the last count I saw was over 130,000 lbs of clothes and shoes go through our building and get redistributed to people in need on the streets.

Miller: This is a key point. So it’s not like Goodwill where you turn stuff in and then it becomes a store. You go through it, clean it if it needs it, and then give it out.

Holcomb: Exactly. In fact, we turn it over very quickly because there’s a lot of need. I’m down at the shelter regularly. People come in without shoes. And that’s a serious situation. So we want to always have on hand multiple sizes that we can hand out so people who stay with us have access to get a clean change of clothes.

So typically it would get turned over and put back on someone else’s feet very quickly. Those donations literally come down a chute in our lobby, drop into a basket, get sorted, and get given out as quickly as possible.

Miller: And that’s so that very easily could have happened to these shoes, right?

Holcomb: It really could have. I wonder if I had been the one sorting, if I would have thought to set them aside? I’m so glad he did. But I’ll tell you, in the 17 years I’ve been with Portland Rescue Mission, I don’t think we’ve ever resold something we’ve always just given it right out because mostly it’s very well used things that are donated.

Miller: So what did happen to these shoes after he set them aside?

Holcomb: So they came to my office because I am the person of miscellaneous items. And so I went to look into them. And we pretty quickly could tell just by Googling that these looked identical to these very special Spike Lee shoes. But of course, we thought ‘that’s impossible. They can’t be these shoes, they must be fakes, someone did a great reproduction.’ So I held on to them for a while. They were sitting in my office for a while and I was trying to get some info, but I just didn’t even know where to start.

I finally reached out to a friend of mine who keeps tabs on sneaker culture, and he said ‘take them to this resale shop, they can authenticate them for you.’ So I put them in my minivan, put them in my clean laundry basket for a while. Eventually, when the sneaker store was open, I was able to get down there.

Miller: Wait, so for weeks they were just in your car?

Holcomb: Yeah, the sneaker store had very limited hours so I couldn’t get down there. I have work, I have kids, and I was like ‘when am I going to get over to the store?’

So when I took them in there, I took them out, I said, ‘here’s these shoes that got donated to Portland Rescue Mission. How can you tell me that they’re fake? Show me.’ And they took them to the back, and lo and behold, came back and said ‘no, these are the real deal and they’re very special. Please take good care of them.’

Miller: Did they want to buy them?

Holcomb: They offered me on the spot, they offered to purchase them from me or consign them. And I was very shocked by the news because we weren’t expecting them to be the real deal. And so I asked for some time to think about it. And then doing research, found that Sotheby’s is really a great option for a global audience. When we reached out to them, they offered to sell them at no cost, giving us the full amount of the hammer price.

Miller: It would have looked bad if they had taken a big cut.

Holcomb: Yeah. They’ve been great to work with.

Miller: How did the designer Tinker Hatfield from Nike get involved?

Holcomb: Well, that has been a really special part of the program of this whole process. Tinker ‒ we reached out to him not knowing if he would even respond. He called us back while he was on vacation and said ‘I would love to be a part of this.’ Took a look at his files, sent us some digital images that he had shared with Spike Lee in the collaborative process so that we could include those with the auction lot. And then when he found out they didn’t come with a box, he offered us a replacement box. Then he came to Portland Rescue Mission and signed it all, and was able to add that, which makes it a much cooler winning item for that person.

Miller: So all of that adds to the theoretical value of the shoes for the eventual buyer.

Holcomb: When you’re a sneaker collector, having a box is important. And then having a box that Tinker Hatfield signed, who is legendary in that community, made it even that much more special.

Miller: What about Spike Lee? This story has gone international as of a couple of days ago. My understanding is you hadn’t heard from him. Has that changed?

Holcomb: I haven’t heard from him yet. In fact, after I left that sneaker store, the first thing I did was reach out to his website and send an info email saying ‘we have these really special shoes. Can you tell us anything about them?’ I didn’t hear back. But my hope is that when he hears, he’s excited for how they’ve ended up telling this really cool story.

Miller: What’s your best guess as to who dropped these off and why, and what they were thinking?

Holcomb: We really have no idea. That is the big question we’ve all asked ourselves. I don’t know. But my assumption is whoever dropped them knew they were special because they are so visibly different than what you would typically drop into a donation chute. So my hope is that they just wanted to do a good deed and not get the credit, and that they’re seeing the news about this and hopefully enjoying the story as it is. And maybe they were willing to take the risk that they just get used and that it would be a good pair of shoes for someone in need.

Miller: What are experts telling you is a likely hammer price?

Holcomb: Sotheby’s is the one who picked that, and they gave a range of $15,000 to $20,000. We would love it if it turned into that. All of those proceeds go right back into the shelter. So what was one pair of shoes donated really turns into thousands of meals that we can serve, so many services that we can provide to people in need. And in that, it really is an important piece of a much bigger story, which is the generosity of the community here in this area ‒ this Portland area ‒ who gives clothes all the time, shoes all the time, who contributes on a monthly basis to support the work of Portland Rescue Mission. That’s what keeps our doors open. So this is one amazing example of how community generosity can look on this big scale.

But I think what moves me is the day to day generosity of people in our community who see the need and say ‘I want to help. I want to be part of that.’ And it makes a big difference.

Miller: Is there an uptick in giving in the holiday season?

Holcomb: We hope so because it’s a really big time of year for us. We’re in the middle of that. I sure hope so. It tends to be a time that people think of people experiencing homelessness, and the demand for our services is increased because it’s hard to be outside when it’s wet, cold and rainy. So often in those moments, we’ll have people come into our shelter and be ready to ask to get off the street. And that’s what we’re looking for. So every opportunity we have to make a connection with someone is an invitation ‘how can we get you off the street? What is your specific need? How can we move you on to that next step?’ That’s what happened with James and that’s what the shoes allow us to do on an even bigger scale for the people that we serve.

Miller: Are there specific things you’ve earmarked this money for?

Holcomb: Not specific things because the money that it will raise really will go back to fund our Burnside shelter, which is meals and services to people on the street.

But it’s such a beautiful picture for us of the very story we see everyday, which is the rescue of buried treasure. These shoes [are] one example, but the lives of people we’re serving is really the bigger story.

Miller: Erin, thanks very much.

Holcomb: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having us.

Miller: Erin Holcomb is director of staff ministry at Portland Rescue Mission. She joined us to talk to us about the recent announcement that someone dropped off a pair of golden Air Jordans that could be worth $20,000.

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