This Ontario Museum Will Be Auctioning Off The Raptors' Sneakers From The Championship Games

There’s no doubt that Raptors-fever has well and truly hit Toronto and beyond over the past few months. As the 2018/2019 basketball season has officially come to an end, and all the free-agency drama has finally subsided, many Raptors fans are left with a basketball-sized hole in their hearts until next season begins. However, basketball super-fans need not fear, as a new, and unusual, type of Raptors exhibit is coming home to Toronto, and you might just want a ‘sneak’ peak of it! 

Following the ground-breaking Raptors NBA season, during which they were crowned champions for the first time in their history, the City of Toronto and Canada are keen to keep the celebrations alive. To this end, the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto has announced an exhibition called ‘Behind the Scenes,’ a section of which will be dedicated to the Raptors game-worn sneakers.

A collection of the sneakers belonging to the members of the 2018-2019 Raptors team will be on display from Thursday, July 11 on the main floor of the museum. The sneakers on loan to the Bata Shoe Museum include those worn by Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol, Norman Powell,  Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, all during the 2019 NBA playoffs.  

If this wasn’t enough to satisfy Raptors fans, the museum’s collection also features a pair of sneakers owned by rapper and Raptors Global Ambassador, Drake.

The collection will remain on display until just before the beginning of the 2019/2020 NBA season. Attendees can take in the sights, and maybe even the smells, of the Raptors shoes until September 18, 2019.

For mega-mega fans, who would love the opportunity to own a pair of these worn-sneakers, you’re in luck! When the exhibition comes to an end, the shoes will be auctioned off by the museum, to raise money for the MLSE Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of youth through sports and recreation and building facilities. The full details of the auction are yet to be announced.

For those who are less interested in the Raptors, the Bata Shoe museum still features an international collection of over 13,000 different shoes and related artifacts. You can observe over 4,500 years of footwear-history, in four distinctive rotating galleries. It would certainly be worth taking a look!