Circa 1980s brought household film duos like the Blues Brothers, Chris and Gordie (Stand By Me), Wallace and Gromit and notably Doc and Marty McFly. The latter re-imagined how we saw the future and how to appreciate the present but also gave us a look at what power-lacing shoes would look like, party thanks to Nike. Providing a non-powered replica; the first Air Mag in 2011 for charity, Nike filled a US Patent on the 8th of July 2014 to create the actual thing and now we have it or at least Michael J. Fox does.
If you’re not sure what this whole thing is about or have little to no knowledge of Sci-fi pop-culture, yesterday, the 21st of October 2015, was the date that Doc and Marty travelled to in the movie Back to the Future Part II. And while the sneakers did make an appearance during the movie back in 1989, they weren’t the real deal; as the prop makers ran some wiring through the lead actor’s pants enabling the laces to tighten themselves.
Looking exactly the same on the outside, the latest Nike Air Mags now have a powered mechanism somewhere in its bottom sole that tightens the laces for you once you’ve secured your feet inside and for us normal people, there’s a manual option if the batteries run out of juice.
Michael J. Fox models the first self-lacing @Nike Mag pic.twitter.com/bgPWM5CKBE
— michaeljfox.org (@MichaelJFoxOrg) October 21, 2015
Similar to the 2011 version of the sneakers, the 2016 consumer release will be produced in limited quantities through open bidding and again all proceeds will be channelled to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
With this innovation Nike hinted at the possibility that one day these power laces could make their way on other sneakers from the brand. “creating something for fiction and turning it into fact” to quote the manufacturer’s CEO, Mark Parker.
Here’s a short animated parody of the movie scene when they time-travel to the future.
In the crazy scenario that you have, let’s say 5 figures of spare change lying around, feel free to bid during the auction and show off your Nike Air Mags II; we’ll just take the nostalgic route and go on a BTTF marathon.
Great Scott! What’s next?
