Nike to Sell 'Back to the Future' Power-Lacing Shoes for 2016 Holiday Season
Nike announced it will sell "adaptive lacing" shoes only to Nike+ members.
— -- Power lacing isn't just a pipe dream in "Back to the Future: Part II" -- Nike just announced today that it will sell a running shoe with "breakthrough, adaptive lacing" beginning this holiday season.
The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 will be available only to members of Nike+, the company's running app.
“When you step in, your heel will hit a sensor and the system will automatically tighten,” Tiffany Beers, Nike senior innovator and the project’s technical lead, said on the Nike website. “Then there are two buttons on the side to tighten and loosen. You can adjust it until it’s perfect.”
"Undue pressure caused by tight tying and slippage resulting from loose laces are now relics of the past," Nike's website boasts. Nike designer Tinker Hatfield explains that you can manually adjust the shoes.
Nike gave Michael J. Fox a pair of Nike Mag shoes with self-lacing shoes on Oct. 21, 2015, the date when the actor's character in "Back to the Future: Part II" traveled from 30 years from the past. Hatfield wrote to Fox at the time that Nike was creating "more pairs for support in aid of the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2016."
Hatfield said on the Nike website today, “Wouldn’t it be great if a shoe, in the future, could sense when you needed to have it tighter or looser? Could it take you even tighter than you’d normally go if it senses you really need extra snugness in a quick maneuver? That’s where we’re headed. In the future, product will come alive.”
The price of the shoe is not clear, though Nike said it will come in three colors. Photos on the Nike website show the shoe in white, black and gray.