BIDS for limited edition pairs of adidas Blackburn shoes designed by Darwen's Gary Aspden reached more than £55,000 on Ebay.

Only 160 pairs of adidas Blackburn SPEZIAL trainers, featuring the homeless charity Nightsafe’s logo, were released at an exhibition on Friday.

The proceeds from the initial launch day for the shoes are going towards the Nightsafe charity, which helps vulnerable, homeless youngsters.

But it is believed that passionate adidas collectors have deliberately upped the prices on the site to make them unattainable as they find the idea of people making personal profit from a charity shoe objectionable.

Collectors had camped outside The Cotton Exchange in Blackburn Town Centre, where the trainer exhibition will be held, since Tuesday night ready for the opening on Friday.

However, after looking on the auction site there had been 25 bids with seven hours to go for the size five trainer and it had reached £55,100.

One of the items was listed as being "New with box: A brand-new, unused, unworn and undamaged item in its original packaging (such as the original box or bag) and/or with the original tags attached."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Meanwhile, another one was set to fetch £50,100 with seven hours of bidding left on Saturday afternoon.

Another size 10.5 item was being sold as 'New with box' and had the 'spezial inner foot sole as well as the normal footsole inners'.

It also came with a 'brown spezial swingtag you get on spezial shoes u also get a red leather limited edition swingtag'.

Lancashire Telegraph:

There were further listings on the website - size 11 (£17,200.00 - two days left ), size 9.5 (£10,100.00 - two days left), size 10 (£21,400.00 - six hours left), another size 11 (£11,900.00 - two days left), size 10.5 (£15,401.00 - two days left) and size 9.5 (£3,700.00 - 21 hours left).
Jan Larkin CEO of Nightsafe said: “We’ve no reason to be disappointed.

“As far as Nightsafe is concerned nothing can take the shine off the amazing work Gary and his team are doing in Blackburn.

“We are really grateful that our charity was chosen to benefit.

“What’s also powerful is the way it’s raising awareness about homelessness.

“We understand collectors will be fed up to see this, perhaps we can do an official auction some time in the future with the trainers we have been given by adidas”