Brazilian fan collects 29 pairs of special Roger Federer shoes

Sports fans are known to great lengths when it comes to their sporting idols - from taking great effort to watch their matches in person to even collecting tennis memorabilia. Now, one fan in Brazil has collected 29 pairs of shoes of Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer and says he has no plans to sell them.

Brazilian fan Edson Balbinot collects 29 pairs of special Roger Federer shoes

According to the Tenisbrasil website, Brazilian businessman Edson Balbinot has collected 29 pairs of shoes - all of which were models worn by the legendary Swiss himself. The speciality of the collection is that he has focused on shoes of Federer with limited editions. Balbinot says that he had to go to great lengths to purchase some of the shoes as many of them are not available in regular stories. “There were pairs that took me almost a year to buy. At first it was mainly through eBay, but then I got to know other collectors who also helped me with some searches 

Among the 29 pairs, Balbinot says his most prized possession is the ‘Nike Zoom Vapor RF287’ series, created by Nike to commemorate Federer’s record-breaking 287 weeks as World No. 1. Nike had produced only 287 pairs of these shoes to commemorate the milestone and each pair had been personalised. "All pairs (Nike Zoom Vapor RF287’ series) are unique and personalised, each corresponding to one of Federer's 287 weeks at the top of the ranking. Mine is the 63rd week, for the ranking released on July 16, 2012".

Empresário coleciona os calçados raros de Federerhttps://t.co/LTgsLfpA7P

— Tenisbrasil (@sitetenisbrasil) August 14, 2020

Balbinot has said that he also received he has no plans to sell them. "The collection will never be for sale. There was already an interested party who offered me R $138,000 last year."

Even with 29 pairs of Federer's shoes, Balbinot is not done yet. He says he wants to get a pair of shoes signed by Federer himself and also has a dream of watching him play at Wimbledon. "I have already watched Federer's matches, but my big dream is to be able to see him once at Wimbledon and maybe even get signed shoes."

Roger Federer has won more Grand Slams than any other tennis player in men's tennis history. He leads the race for most Slams with 20 Grand Slams - followed by Rafael Nadal with 19 slams and Novak Djokovic with 17 Slams. The Swiss legend recently underwent knee surgery and has said he will not play again in 2020 but will be back in 2021. He is currently ranked No. 4 in the world.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3g6vGyG