If the mere mention of the word “museum” has you stifling a yawn and checking your watch, it’s time to rethink the possibilities of the institution. The world of micro-museums and specialty collections awaits, enticing even the most extreme of the anti-art folks. The cool thing about these offbeat museums is that they allow you to peer into subcultures (much like the content on eBay Stories), be it Minnesota’s 16,500-square foot SPAM Museum or Kentucky’s Vent Haven Museum, an institution dedicated to chronicling the history of ventriloquism.
On the international front, the museums get far more surreal and scatological, with India’s Sulabh International Museum of Toilets and the Musee de egouts de Paris, which translates to the Paris Sewer Museum.
The risk of running an obscure or untraditional museum is that your collection does not have mass appeal, or you cannot secure a board of directors and fundraisers to keep up with the operating costs. So what happens when these museums shut their doors? The owners liquidate their holdings and sometimes, just sometimes, those items end up on eBay. Today’s listing is such a case, though this particular mini-museum may have greater mass appeal than most, as it’s the ShoeZeum Guinness Book World Records Largest Sneaker Collection 2500 Nike Shoes:
Sneakerheads rejoice! These are some collectible kicks and here’s the true kicker—almost all of them are brand new and in their original boxes. Any eBay browser, shopper, or collector worth their salt knows that condition and packaging make up a good portion of an item’s market value.
Let’s allow the listing to speak for itself:
“The ShoeZeum is organized into 23 themed exhibits and is on display in Downtown Las Vegas. The collection is displayed with memorabilia, toys, and props that bring the shoes to life and tell the story of Nike. This listing is for every shoe, every toy, every prop, and every poster in the ShoeZeum. The collection will not be broken up and sold piece by piece. Also included are the Guinness World Record Certificate, the ShoeZeum Trademark, and the ShoeZeum dot com website.”
Meet the collection via YouTube:
An interesting quote at the 1:14 mark: “I bought everything on eBay.”
You do not need to stick to virtual visits to the ShoeZeum. If you find yourself in Vegas, swing by the current location – 450 Fremont Street – and check out the 23 theme exhibits. Among the highlights on view are shoes worn by Michael Jordan (these account for the only used items in the collection), shoes related to alcohol brands, cartoon and super hero sneaks, a Nike timeline of styles as represented by actual shoes, Running and the History of Air, sneakers from video games and movies, OGs vs. Retros, holiday releases, patriotic kicks, Olympic Jordans and, finally, what’s this? A wall of Nikes with an art theme! So the ShoeZeum has more in common with a mainstream museum than we first suspected.
What do you do with a record-breaking collection of shoes if you do not have record-breaking square footage in your closets? Well, take a gander at your holiday gift list and start passing out footwear (though be warned that almost all these shoes are sizes 11 and 12). Make a fashion statement by wearing a different pair of kicks every day to the health club or gym. Or run the numbers and start liquidating the collection on…might we suggest eBay?
Wow. That is truly inspiring. Very well put together.. I’m jealous
If the shoe fits … wear it.
…just say’n
Ho Hum, Another attempt at making the mundane something special for a brief moment of fame.
To normal consumer like me, it’s just a big space with Nike shoes.