Netflix & Sotheby’s Debut Sneakers Made With 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite
Image via Sotheby’s
To commemorate the launch of Adam McKay’s upcoming film Don’t Look Up, Netflix and Sotheby’s have teamed up to create a custom New Balance 550—and these sneakers are out of this world, literally.
Unlike other shoes offered by the sportswear brand, this one-of-a-kind pair was made with fragments of pallasite meteorite, recovered from the Russian river of Hekandue.
According to Footwear News, the custom sneakers were created by Matt Burgess of MattB Customs, who used a high-pressure water jet to cut the meteorite fragments to fit the contours of the shoe.
In total, 34 fragments of olivine and peridot crystals were included in the sneaker, featuring an array of colors such as emerald and amber. These crystals were “the result of small chunks of the stony mantle becoming suspended in the molten metal of an asteroid’s iron-nickel core,” as per the companies.
Image via Sotheby’s
In addition to the meteorite and crystals, the pair comes with metallic lace locks with latticework presented in a Widmanstätten pattern, which only occurs from the meteorite cooling over millions of years in outer space.
For those familiar with the film, the shoes pay homage to astronomy student Kate Dibiasky (played by Jennifer Lawrence). The movie’s main plot revolves around Dibiasky, alongside her professor Dr Randall Mindy (played by Leonardo Di Caprio) discovering that a comet is about to collide into Earth.
The meteorite used for the custom sneakers was said to have been formed over 4.5 billion years ago in the core of an asteroid or comet, similar to the fictional comet to which the film alludes to.
Image via Sotheby’s
“It’s not every day we have the opportunity to offer a one-of-one pair of sneakers that technically date over four billion years old,” said Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s Head of Streetwear and Modern Collectables.
“At Sotheby’s, we’ve had the extraordinary pleasure to offer some of the most amazing and special sneakers ever created, but few can rival the uniqueness of this incredible pair.”
If you’re willing to shell out for these custom kicks, head over here on December 17, 12pm (Eastern Time) to place a bid — it’s currently listed at over US$13,000.
Image via Sotheby’s
[via Footwear News, images via Sotheby’s]
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