A pair of Halo-inspired boots is already commanding an impressive mark-up on the secondary market.
As reported by PC Gamer, the new footwear was produced as a collaboration between American footwear manufacturer Wolverine and 343 Industries, the team that took over development of the franchise after Bungie split from Microsoft following the release of Halo Reach. The new shoes are a variant on Wolverine's Hellcat boot, with the collaboration coming about after the company received numerous comments that their original design looked like something out of the sci-fi video game series' universe. "Comments rolled in asking the brand to make the boots a reality... Now, after nearly a year of design and collaboration, Wolverine and 343 Industries are answering the call," the footwear company stated.
The boots come in the same shade of green as Master Chief's Mjolnir battle armor and branded with the emblem of the USNC and the numbers "117," a reference to the Spartan warrior's service number. The footwear was originally priced at $225 USD, but quickly sold-out, as the company only produced 117 pairs of the boots.
Scalpers have already put this piece of Spartan equipment up on eBay, with "Buy It Now" prices ranging from $1,249.99 to a whopping $2,499.99 USD. The most recent pair to sell with a publicly disclosed final price was sold on March 29 for $1,500.00 USD. While that is almost seven times the shoes' original value, the seller was generous enough to include free shipping.
Budget-minded fans of Microsoft's premier first-person shooter franchises may have missed out on their change to literally step into Master Chief's shoes, but they still have plenty of other Halo content to enjoy. The series launched its most recent game, Halo Infinite, for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S late last year. The game received some criticism for its multiplayer progression systems, but was praised for the single-player campaign's shift towards an open-world structure. The game was described by many critics as a return to form for the series and was named Game of the Year by Game Informer.
The franchise also debuted its long-delayed Halo TV series, which stars Pablo Schreiber as the series' main Covenant-slaying super soldier. The show is available exclusively through the Paramount+ streaming service. Despite the long wait for the series, the show's first episode has received a noticeably more tepid reception than the video game series that inspired it, and drew some controversy when it showed an on-screen reveal of Master Chief's face. The games' original developers once stated that they intentionally avoided showing the Chief's face so that players could more easily project themselves onto the character.