Justin Bieber’s Sneakers Auctioned for $26,400 for Children’s Charity
The 2026 World Cup final at MetLife Stadium already had history written all over it. Spain v Argentina for the trophy, a first-ever FIFA final halftime show, and a pop lineup that looked more like a global festival bill than a football interval.
Now a single pair of sneakers from that night has added another line to the story.
Christie’s confirmed on Wednesday that Justin Bieber’s custom SKYLRK “Matter Daddy” sneakers — worn during his acoustic performance of “Everything Hallelujah” at halftime on July 19 — sold for $26,400 in the auction house’s One Goal sale. The low-top “latte” colorway with light pink accents had been valued at just $2,000–$4,000.
They went for more than 10 times that. All of it headed to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund.
One pair of shoes, a global cause
The One Goal auction feeds into a $100 million initiative designed to open up education and football opportunities for children worldwide. Bieber’s briefly worn SKYLRK pair became one of its headline lots, the kind of crossover item that fuses pop culture, fashion and the world’s biggest game in a single swipe of the auctioneer’s gavel.
Christie’s noted that Bieber debuted this specific Matter Daddy colorway during the World Cup finale in New Jersey. On a night dominated by the sport, his footwear quietly turned into a ticket for something far bigger than a collector’s shelf.
And the sneakers were far from alone.
BTS, Shakira, Madonna: halftime show turns goldmine
The MetLife halftime show — featuring Madonna, BTS, Shakira, Burna Boy, the Muppets’ Electric Mayhem, Gustavo Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic and a finale curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin — has now doubled as a fundraising machine.
Items worn by BTS during their run through their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Dynamite” generated a staggering $300,300 for the same cause. Fans snapped up:
- RM’s chunky Untitled-03 black boots for $19,800
- j-hope’s black and red fingerless gloves for $28,600
- Jin’s red leather belt for $16,500
- Suga’s red leather pants, complete with a sewn-in silk scarf listing all BTS members, for $33,000
- V’s custom black silk scarf with the group’s name, demon faces and soccer balls for $46,200
- Jung Kook’s red, black and white motocross jacket for $46,200
- Jimin’s white and red jersey with BTS patches for a remarkable $110,000
The pop icons who shared that stage with Bieber also saw their memorabilia fly.
Shakira’s bright yellow costume from the official “Dai Dai” music video fetched $8,250, while an Earth Ball signed by Shakira, Kaka and FIFA president Gianni Infantino brought in $3,850. Madonna’s contribution? A pair of bright pink, bedazzled fingerless gloves from her opening halftime set that went for $41,800, the kind of figure that underlines just how hungry fans were for a piece of that night.
Coldplay’s ink on paper, and a ball full of names
The auction even reached into the heart of the show’s finale. The two-page handwritten lyric sheet for Coldplay’s “We Dance” — lyrics on one page, the halftime setlist on the other — signed by Chris Martin and carrying a message of love, sold for $15,400.
A blue World Cup Earth ball, inscribed by Martin with the names of the halftime performers, cleared more than $6,000.
From boots to belts, from gloves to a single pair of latte-colored sneakers, the first World Cup final halftime show has already outlived the 90 minutes it split in two. The match decided a champion. The memorabilia is now helping decide how many children get a chance to learn and play.
