For many sneaker fans, Kenny Gonzales, aka The Perfect Pair, needs no introduction. He has amassed 684,000 followers on Instagram, displaying some of the rarest sneakers to ever exist, including unreleased samples, previously unseen player exclusives, and more.
This week, The Perfect Pair’s reputation was called into question by autograph authenticator Steve Grad on X. Earlier this year, @Gotsole on Instagram got a tour of The Perfect Pair’s sneaker collection, where he revealed what he said was a game-worn and signed “Last Shot” Air Jordan 14 from Michael Jordan himself after he had worn them during the 1998 NBA Finals. The Perfect Pair said in the clip that his brother purchased the Jordan 14 for $15,000 back in the day, and he witnessed Jordan sign the sneakers directly. In the video, The Perfect Pair also claims that MJ wore two different pairs of the sneaker in the Finals, with his pair being one of them.
The clip of that moment of the tour was reshared on X, which led to Grad claiming that the autograph on the shoe was inauthentic. “The signed sneakers would even be cooler if the autographs were real. Those are not, seen literally hundreds of those come out of Chicago in the 1990s,” Grad wrote on X.
Back in 2024, auction house Sotheby’s also sold a six-shoe Air Jordan collection that included the original “Last Shot” Air Jordan 14 worn by Jordan during the 1998 NBA Finals. The entire collection sold for $8 million.
When reached for comment The Perfect Pair declined, however he responded to Complex’s Instagram post regarding the matter, saying, “This is comedy, authenticated through videos.” Grad has yet to respond to Complex when we reached out for comment.
