Rulon Gardner Wrestling Shoes

Rulon Gardner's signature wrestling shoes.  Named after the 2000 Greco-Roman Wrestling Olympic Champion that dethroned Aleksandr Karelin, who was undefeated for 13 years in international competition.

These shoes are hot right now.  In the last few years, these shoes jumped from a price range of around $200 in perfect condition, to the $700 range for a pair that is brand new in the box.  In the years I've collected, I don't know that I've ever seen a pair of shoes jump in value so quickly, but there is a couple reasons as to why these shoes did.

The first is the name associated with them.  Any pair of shoes seems to be more on demand if they have the association of a great wrestler to them.  We watched it happen with the red, white, and blue Asic Ultraflexes a few years back.  Jordan Burrough's rocked a pair in the 2012 Olympic Games, and after bringing home a gold medal, the price skyrocketed, and has yet to come back down.  Rulon Gardner's shoes are no different.

The other reason these shoes sell for so much is their design.  These shoes were the first of their kind because they not only looked cool, but they lasted for what seemed like forever.  Nowadays, you do see a lot of beat up Rulons, but take into consideration that it has been close to ten years since these shoes were released, and most people wore them for not only matches, but years of practice as well.  I've owned a few pair of Rulons.  I have a gold pair I wore for the state tournament in high school and I also wore them when I earned All-American status for the first time in college.  They are still in awesome condition, even after wearing them for probably fifty matches, a fair share of practices, and whatever the previous owner had used them for.

If you're looking for a rare pair of shoes that you can wear for match after match and not worry about destroying them, these are for you.  These are one of the comfiest, and best gripping shoes I have owned, which is why I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a cool pair of kicks.