A pair of Shohei Ohtani's game-worn cleats from the 2025 MLB Tokyo Series sold for $440,055 at auction Sunday, shattering the previous record for the most expensive baseball shoes ever sold at public sale. The New Balance Ohtani 1 Player Exclusive cleats carry Ohtani's Japanese kanji signature, dirt from the Tokyo Dome, and the handwritten note “GU Opening Day Tokyo Series.”
Officials with The Realest, the platform that facilitated the sale, said the transaction set a new all-time public auction record for the most expensive baseball shoes ever sold, according to the New York Post. The price obliterated the prior mark of $93,000, which Michael Jordan's game-used, signed Birmingham Barons cleats fetched in 2020 — meaning Ohtani's cleats sold for roughly 4.73 times as much, as Heavy noted. Jordan's minor league pair had held that baseball footwear record for six years.
Ohtani wore the cleats while recording his first hit of the 2025 season during the Tokyo Series opener against the Chicago Cubs, per Sports Illustrated's reporting — a game that marked his first official MLB appearance in Japan following his 2024 World Series title. The Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Cubs in that series. Only two other pairs of athlete shoes have ever cleared $400,000 at public sale, both belonging to Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
A Corporate Detour Before the Auction Block
Before the cleats ever reached The Realest, they passed through the hands of Take to the Universe, a Japanese beauty and wellness products distributor. The company purchased the cleats in 2025 and later registered a Los Angeles subsidiary in 2026 to use the footwear as a marketing asset for its U.S. brand expansion, the Los Angeles Times reported. Take to the Universe then arranged the public sale through The Realest, which offered the cleats as the inaugural item under its new Certified pilot program — a system built to provide verified provenance and direct-from-source authentication for high-end sports collectibles, per Sole Retriever's reporting.
Decoy the Dog Makes His Mark
The cleats also feature images of Ohtani's dog Decoy on the backs and bottoms. That artwork traces back to illustrations from Ohtani's debut children's book, “Decoy Saves Opening Day,” published by HarperCollins in February 2026, according to Mantel News. Decoy has built his own commercial fanbase among Dodgers supporters and collectors worldwide, the outlet noted, turning the cleats into as much a piece of pop culture as sports history.
Part of a Larger Ohtani Memorabilia Boom
The cleat sale lands amid what the market is increasingly calling the Ohtani Economy. His base from the September 2024 50/50 home run game sold for $73,000 this month, while a Shohei Ohtani trading card garnered more than $10 million in July. The custom cleats he actually wore during that 50/50 milestone game were authenticated and permanently donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum rather than sold to private collectors, according to Baseball and Brands — a decision that shifted market attention toward his 2025 Tokyo Series pair instead.
Ohtani's 50th home run ball from that same September 2024 game separately sold at Goldin Auctions for $4.392 million, setting the all-time record for the most expensive ball in sports history, as reported by AP News. That mark surpassed Mark McGwire's 1998 70th home run ball, which had held the record at $3.005 million since 1999. Los Angeles Dodgers championship memorabilia has continued climbing since then: Hoodline previously reported that Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 of the 2024 World Series sold for $1.56 million, making it the third-most valuable baseball ever auctioned behind Ohtani's 50/50 ball and McGwire's 70th homer ball.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Ohtani is projected to earn approximately $125 million in off-field sponsorships and endorsements during the 2026 season alone — income that far exceeds any other player in Major League Baseball and helps explain the appetite for his game-worn gear. Even so, baseball cleats remain well behind the ceiling set by basketball footwear: The Realest noted in an official auction release that the all-time record for game-worn sports footwear across all sports belongs to Jordan's six-shoe Dynasty Collection, which sold for $8.03 million at Sotheby's in February 2024.
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