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This Man Paid $9,000 for a Pair

of Donald Trump Sneakers
Roman Sharf is one of the watch world’s best known dealers.
Compared to the Patek on his wrist, the shoes were cheap.

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Roman Sharf shows off the pair of Trump-branded sneakers, which were autographed by the former
president, that he bought in a recent auction. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

By Jacob Bernstein
Feb. 24, 2024

When Donald J. Trump appeared at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia

last weekend to promote a limited-edition line of gilded high-tops,
there were a lot of boos in the crowd, but none coming from Roman
Sharf.

A watch dealer who is known for his selection of tangerine-size

Audemars Piguets and Patek Philippes, Mr. Sharf ended up buying
an autographed pair of the “Never Surrender” sneakers after
placing a $9,000 bid through an auction held that day over the app
Whatnot.

“They’re still new — they smell like glue,” Mr. Sharf said Friday
morning as he held the shoes to his face and took a whiff.

Above each ankle was an American flag of sorts, comprising red

and black lines and a blue box filled with spangly stars and stripes.
There were Ts embossed on the tongue and Ts on the sides. The
former president’s signature appeared in thick black ink on the
shiny right toe box.

As he showed off his prize, Mr. Sharf was standing on the second
floor of the small building in Southampton, Pa., that is the
headquarters of his company, Luxury Bazaar. Except for the shell
of a 2019 Formula One car that serves as a kind of sculpture, the
space looked like a vault.

Behind him was an office filled with vintage Louis Vuitton trunks,
old cassette tapes by Jay-Z, Whitney Houston and 2 Live Crew,
among others, and an orange Pelican case containing two dozen
timepieces that he said were collectively worth around $3 million.

Mr. Sharf was wearing blue Nike X Sacai “Fragments,” faded

Dsquared jeans and a navy blue golf jacket that he had bought on
Wednesday on a visit to the Trump International Golf Club in West
Palm Beach, Fla.

He had wound up at the club because he had proudly posted about

his Sneaker Con acquisition on his social media channels, where he
has hundreds of thousands of followers. Afterward, Mr. Trump
extended a lunch invitation. So Mr. Sharf jumped on a plane and
headed to the golf club with his 20-year-old son, Marcus Sharf, who
lives in Miami and runs a high-end sneaker and streetwear
boutique, HYPMiami.

A MAGA cap autographed by the former president is another of Mr. Sharf’s Trump-related
souvenirs. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

Mr. Sharf said the criticism he received online after he made the purchase did not bother him. “I’m on social
media,” he said. “I’m used to haters.” Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

Mr. Sharf had the Caesar salad and chicken noodle soup. Mr.
Trump munched on his trademark burger and fries. After the
lunch, Mr. Sharf’s rabbi texted to ask if they had discussed the
situation in Israel, but no such luck.

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“It was like talking with friends,” Mr. Sharf said. “It was a normal
conversation, no agenda.”

A fair number of Mr. Sharf’s several hundred thousand followers on

YouTube, Instagram and TikTok had a different reaction: They said
they were going to unsubscribe to his feeds as a result of his
support for Mr. Trump. Some of the online anger was stirred up by
an article in The Daily Mail about Mr. Sharf’s sneaker purchase
that described him as a “Russian oligarch” who was prone to
“MAGA mania.”

Mr. Sharf professed not to be bothered by the criticism. “I’m on

social media,” he said. “I’m used to haters.”

He added that he was in the business of catering to people with

money — and many of those people are Republicans who were
happy to see him profess his allegiance to Mr. Trump. But Mr. Sharf
did have a few things he wanted to clear up, including that he is not
Russian, but Ukrainian.

He said he was 13 when he came to the United States with his

stepmother, his older sister and his father in 1988, three years
before Ukraine broke away from the Soviet Union and became an
independent nation .

“He had $4 in his pocket,” Mr. Sharf said of his father.

The family moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, and lived in a tiny

apartment in one of the buildings operated by Fred Trump His .

father found employment at a company that welded canopies at

stores and worked as a waiter on weekends. His stepmother was
an accountant.

After high school, from 1993 to 1996, Mr. Sharf served in the U.S.
Army. He was stationed in Camp Pelham, South Korea, then moved
to Fort Knox in Kentucky, records show.

From there, he put in two years at Pennsylvania State University

before heading to the Philadelphia area, where he attended a trade
school for computer programming. He then took a job at
HealthPartners Inc., an insurance provider. When his annual
salary passed $50,000, he had enough to pretend at having wealth.

“I leased a BMW 3 Series and got a Rolex Datejust for $1,000,” he

said. “It walked into the room before I did.”

Mr. Sharf held out his arm, displaying how he used to flaunt his
Rolex. The timepiece now dangling from his wrist was a vintage
yellow gold Patek Philippe Nautilus sports watch that trades for
200 times that much, give or take.

By the late 1990s, he was at Deutsche Bank, working in

infrastructure support. On the side, he began selling watches on
eBay. His sideline took off, and in 2006, he founded Luxury Bazaar.
It now has 30 employees and two offices — one in Southampton,
Pa., the other in Hong Kong. He lives with his wife, Anna Sharf, and
their two younger children in a suburb of Philadelphia.

A case of high-end watches at the headquarters of Mr. Sharf’s company, Luxury Bazaar. Michelle Gustafson
for The New York Times

Mr. Sharf with two members of his social media team, Nina Ricci, middle, and Sarah McCloskey. Michelle
Gustafson for The New York Times

Mr. Sharf said he was decidedly opposed to Russia’s invasion of

Ukraine. “I don’t even understand his goal,” he said of President
Vladimir V. Putin. He added that, in his view, Mr. Trump would be
the “one president” who could bring the war to an end by sitting
the two sides down and hammering out a deal.

“I’m a strong proponent of the First Amendment and the right to

bear arms,” Mr. Sharf said. “I also believe in gay marriage and the
right to abortion. Within limits.”

“Everybody to me is green,” he continued, invoking a saying from

his Army days. “That’s what the military teaches you, because we
all wear the same color uniform. What I hate to see is division.
We’re one people under one flag.”

Although his shoes had two. One for each foot.

Jacob Bernstein is a reporter for the Styles desk. In addition to writing profiles of fashion
designers, artists and celebrities, he has focused much of his attention on L.G.B.T.
issues, philanthropy and the world of furniture design. More about Jacob Bernstein

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