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Keystone
![When Roger Federer changes shoes, some fans already sense their chance. The tennis star's worn and sweat-soaked shoes are in great demand all over the world.]()
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When Roger Federer changes shoes, some fans already sense their chance. The tennis star’s worn and sweat-soaked shoes are in great demand all over the world.
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Zvg
![Edson Balbinot can almost be called a fetish. The Brazilian says he has 29 sweaty pairs of sneakers in his collection.]()
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Edson Balbinot can almost be called a fetish. The Brazilian says he has 29 sweaty pairs of sneakers in his collection.
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Keystone
![When Federer plays, Babinot always looks at the Swiss shoes.]()
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When Federer plays, Babinot always looks at the Swiss shoes.
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Keystone
![The collection also includes US Open kickers from his last triumph in New York in 2008.]()
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The collection also includes US Open kickers from his last triumph in New York in 2008.
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Zvg
![Edson Balbinot's pride and joy: the sweaty collection of Federer shoes.]()
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Edson Balbinot’s pride and joy: the sweaty collection of Federer shoes.
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Federer has been immortalized on tattoos, horrific sums of money are offered at auctions for his signed rackets, calendars or winning tenues. Many fans don’t shy away from his sweat either – Roger’s wet bandanas, towels and sweatbands are in great demand after every match point.
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But there is a Brazilian who takes the 39-year-old Swiss man’s admiration to extremes. Edson Balbinot, a businessman from Santa Catarina, claims on the Internet site “TenisBrasil” to own the largest Federer shoe collection in the world. 29 pairs of limited edition sneakers, original and worn, in which the foot sweat of 20 Grand Slam titles has dried.
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Sometimes there is only one shoe instead of two
Balbinot started his crazy passion in 2009. At that time he bought two pairs of Air Zoom Vapor VI shoes, one he wore himself, the other he never wore. It ended up in the box, carefully packed and kept to this day. Like most of the following purchases, because he often only received individual copies, i.e. only one shoe.
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The die-hard Federer fan bought only a minority of the sneakers in commercial stores. He often needed a lot of patience and went to great lengths to get the rarities. “Sometimes it took me almost a year,” explains Balbinot. In the beginning he mainly searched on eBay, later he got to know other collectors who helped him with the search.
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He is proud of his record shoe
“Most shoes are unique and personalized,” he says proudly. He calls the special version of the “Nike Zoom Vapor RF287” the “most special couple” – the number stands for the 287th week in which the Swiss legend topped the world rankings, surpassing Pete Sampras’ record. It was a great effort to get one of the only 287 shoes produced. “Mine are from the 63rd week of the ranking published on July 16, 2012,” said Balbinot.
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“The collection will never be for sale!”
The South American is therefore not thinking of selling his precious collection – despite extremely lucrative offers! “Last year someone offered me 138,000 real (about 21,400 francs, the editor),” says the collector freak. But all interested parties were unlucky: “My collection will never be for sale!”
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But Edson Balbinot is not completely happy, he has other ambitions. He hopes to have a shoe personally signed by Federer one day. For that he would have to somehow get close to the mostly shielded superstar. The Brazil fan has seen the maestro play a few times. He says: “My big dream is to be able to accompany him to Wimbledon one day and maybe even get a signature there.”
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