Self-lacing 'Back to the Future' sneaks sell for whopping $52,500 at auction

Maybe this is the same buyer who threw down $133,000 for two NBA Finals tickets?

Either way, someone just spent a lot of money on a pair of sneakers. Historic, collectors' item sneakers that hold a legendary place in pop-culture history -- but still, sneakers.

A pair of Nike Mag self-lacing sneakers -- inspired by the ones featured in Back to the Future II -- just fetched $52,500 at public auction.

Nike released replicas of the Mag model in 2011, but those didn't include the signature self-lacing feature that made the sneakers from the film so well-known. In 2016, the company released a tricked-out Nike Mag that actually incorporated the futuristic self-lacing feature.

It's a pair of that latter version that just sold for more than $52,000.

Heritage Auctions, which ran the bidding process, says the winning $52,500 offer is a world record for a collectible sneaker sold at public auction.

Last year, however, a pair of Air Mags sold for $104,000 in a private auction in Hong Kong. But that was a private charity auction that, fittingly, raised money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, founded by the Back to the Future star in 2000 with the aim of defeating Parkinson's disease.