The auction for the New Balance cleat

Shoi Otani wore during the 2025 MLB

Tokyo Series. His first major league

games played in Japan ended on Sunday

with a sale just over 440 uh,000. That's

five times higher than the previous

record for game one baseball cleat. The

cleats feature Otani's rare kanji

signature and artwork of his cute puppy

or dog decoy. The auction was run by the

realist realist I should say. And back

here with me on opening bid is the

realist founder and CEO Scott Keiny,

better known in the collectible circles

as DJ Ski. Scott, good to see you, man.

Uh, look, this number seems big to me.

Are you happy with the end result? Um,

yeah. I mean, setting a an all-time

record by nearly 5x just shows that um,

you know, what the where the market is

right now and, you know, we're very

excited the way that we presented it and

the way the market received it. Do you

do you know who bought it and are they

just taking these cleats and putting

them in a vault somewhere never to be

seen for the next 10 years?

>> It's introducing I do um for

confidentiality I don't know if they

want to be public yet so I won't say the

name but um somebody that actually

typically wasn't in the game use space.

It was a new kind of entrance to it

which is why we think that there's so

much room to to grow the category. And

it was funny immediate, like nearly

immediately after the auction won, we

had people emailing making significant

offers over the sales price and I was

texting the the winner asking if he

would literally take a significant chunk

of change to walk away and do nothing.

And he laughed. He said absolutely not.

You know, he thinks that these are

million-dollar plus overtime. And um I I

I can't actually disagree with him. So

>> Scott, I actually when I saw this

number, so I've been tracking the

bidding since we last talked to you a

couple weeks ago. I mean, going up and

up and up. I actually thought they going

to sell for a million dollars yesterday.

Like I mean, I know this is a big

number, but it's Showy. Uh these are

very rare shoes and like the whole space

is hot. The the space is on fire. You

know, there's only been um and now look

for the first time there's somebody else

in a new entrant in the game more in

sneaker category that uh in sports has

hit over, you know, this this amount,

right? Before it was Michael Jordan,

Kobe Bryant, and now show Otani, which

is what he deserves. But I think when we

look at the sector, I think, you know,

the sneakers and footwear is something

that's been undervalued for a long time.

I'm a sneaker head at my core. I had,

you know, 2,000 pairs in my collection

at one point. And I we think that

there's a clear clear lane to to own and

establish. And we think that this is

going to be the first of many that

really set a runoff like that. And it's

going to be somewhere where we focus a

lot of our attention at the realist.

>> Wait, 2,000 pairs. How many do you have

now?

>> No, no. I'm down to like four or 500.

[laughter] So, I

>> say four or 5,000.

>> No, no, no, no, no. I cut down.

>> Why? Why would sneakers be undervalued?

You know, I see these these baseball

cleats. I mean, to me, you know, the the

casual observer, uh, they look cooler

than if I were to go out and buy a

jersey. Yeah, it's interesting, right?

Like jerseys historically have set the

record prices and stuff. Footwear just

has not done much. Again, sans a couple

sales from Michael Jordan and and and

Kobe Bryant. And for us, I think that,

you know, where we see the opportunity

is again engaging with new audiences and

demographics because sneaker culture

became so big, right? We saw the resale

sites. I mean, you'll constantly see six

figure sneaker sales of like limited

samples, not gameworn sneakers, but like

sample versions of say a PlayStation

Travis Scott collaboration or something.

So, because of that, we think that this

sector is very obvious. You pair the the

significance that sneaker culture has on

a generation and you place the

significance that that game war is

having and you pair those together and

we think it's just you know a natural

next step. So uh we're we're excited to

be at the forefront of that.

>> Does show have more merchandise coming

>> there. There will be more things that we

are bringing to market at the realist.

We're really excited because we think

that, you know, we've already started to

establish ourselves not only as leaders

in the baseball category, setting

records not only in this, but for two

baseball's most prestigious awards. We

on the record for gold glove, silver

slugger awards, and um you know, there's

going to be some other records that we

set uh coming very, very soon. So, we're

excited. So, show fans. Uh stay tuned.

The realist,

>> what's the next auction we all need to

be watching?

>> We've got something that we're going to

tease without giving too much away. You

know, today is August 17th. We're going

to tease it one week from today. And

that date has significant,

I guess, relevance for that. So, if you

look at that on the calendar, we'll see

if anybody can figure it out. It's going

to set be something that's really,

really incredible. Definitely a seven

figure item.

>> You're going to make me search Yahoo

Scout AI to try to figure this out. So,

I thank you. I mean, I love our new

search. Um, but you know,

>> be literal. Be literal when you search.

When you search Yahoo, we'll we'll test

it and see what it can come with. I'm

guessing it'll figure it out.

>> Fair enough. Now, obviously, you are a

sports fan. You must be watching all

sorts of sports the course of the week.

What do you think about this the sale of

the Lakers and what what does it mean

for for that franchise and memorabilia

tied to it? I think it's a great sign

for the market. I mean, we're seeing

sports being this category that is, you

know, the one thing I don't like saying

necessarily a hedge on AI because I

think it goes handinhand with it, right?

people are craving. What AI does is make

us crave these IRL experiences and um

sports is really one of the last things

in the world where the entire world

we're like a mono community for for

these moments, right? And seeing these

valuations. I mean remember when people

were were were making so much fun of

Steve Balmer buying the the Clippers um

and we're seeing that now he looks, you

know, like a genius in terms of those

sales prices and you you get a

historical franchise like the Lakers.

It's almost shocking that, you know, we

could be looking back at this and

thinking that this was an underale.

Like, this is one of the world's great

franchises and these do not just come to

market and they may not for a long long

time and especially it's inevitable with

private equity and everything being able

to come into the space. We think in a

bigger way soon because that's the only

way for a lot of these categories to

grow. Um, I I I don't think it's a bad

bet. And as it relates to memorabilia,

we think that this just shows the the

power of the space, the power of the

story, the power of brand. And you know,

there was an interesting uh article I

was reading the other day that was

talking about, hey, you know, people

can't afford these teams now. And even

if you become a small LP in a team, you

get a few tickets. Would you rather have

a jersey or something else that you can

truly control and is actually a little

bit more liquid from that? So, we think

it's really interesting and, you know, I

love it for our space. So, don't try to

be a 510% holder in a sports team. Go

out there and buy the jersey on that

team is what you're trying to say. Um,

>> it's a lot more liquid, right? There's

there's there's, you know, you can it's

a way to invest in a team in a different

way.

>> Uh, and and lastly, since we last spoke,

LeBron is going to have a new home now.

Should I be trying to get a ticket to

his first game for his new team, uh, a

pair of his sneakers? Will these things

fund my retirement? Like, what are you

how are you thinking about it?

>> Absolutely. if you can ride, whatever

you could do to get that, the first game

jerseys, first game sneakers, even take

it stubs from that. I'm sure they'll do

something commemorative over there, um

are are going to have value, right? Uh

you know, but I think that the challenge

is going to be getting your hands on it.

But if if you can, I would of course

take a flight to Philly uh for it.

>> Does he does him going to Philly, does

that raise the value on other

merchandise he may have out there?

>> I think it does. I think it brings

awareness to to the entire landscape.

It's a new jersey that he has. It also

uh you know for historical items right

that people thought he might go back to

other teams like the Cavs. There's not

going to be any more Cavs LeBron

jerseys. So um that's probably where he

will be remembered. So we think for Cavs

memorabilia specifically who are one of

our clients, but we think that for them

it actually is a is is a big big boom.

Um just because now we know that

everything out there is finite.