Stepping into Steve Jobs’ shoes: Apple co-founder's ragged sandals go up for auction

No one wants a pair of worn-out shoes unless they were once owned by Steve Jobs. Jobs, who founded the tech giant Apple, passed away in 2011, leaving behind a pair of brown-coloured suede Birkenstock sandals. According to the website of Julien's Auctions, which will be sending the ragged item under the hammer, the shoes will be up for grabs for an estimated price range of $60,000 to $80,000. 

The auction, which went live on November 11, is slated to conclude two days later. The sandals were once worn by Jobs in the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to the auction, they were in the possession of Mark Sheff, the deceased entrepreneur’s home manager. 

"In 1976, he hatched the beginnings of Apple computer in a Los Altos garage with Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak while occasionally wearing these sandals.When Jobs discovered the ingenuity and practicality of Birkenstocks, he became fascinated," reads a description of the shoes on the website of the auction house.

'They were his uniform': Steve Jobs' ex-wife on the suede shoes

The Birkenstocks have been in the spotlight before they were up for an auction. In a conversation with Vogue, Jobs’ former wife Chrisann Brennan said that they were a staple in her ex-husband’s wardrobe. "The sandals were part of his simple side. They were his uniform. The great thing about a uniform is that you don't have to worry about what to wear in the morning,” she said. 

"He would never have done or bought anything just to stand out from others. He was simply convinced of the intelligence and practicality of the design and the comfort of wearing it. And in Birkenstocks he didn't feel like a businessman, so he had the freedom to think creatively,” Brennan added.