It was nearly three decades ago when Marty McFly first tried on a futuristic pair of grey Nike sneakers in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II.
“Power laces, all right!” he exclaimed as the high tops laced up automatically.
Now, they’re a reality.
Nike has finally manufactured a real pair of self-lacing shoes. The company presented the first pair to Marty McFly himself (otherwise known as Michael J. Fox) on Wednesday – Back to the Future Day.
Fox seemed impressed with the shoes as soon as he put them on and heard the familiar sound of the self-lacing mechanism.
“That’s insane!” he said.
The patent filing from last year details how the shoes lace up and tighten at the ankle on their own.
In a nutshell, the laces are triggered by a weight sensor in the heel. A small motor powers a set of gears, which pull the laces using a belt system.
The wearer can also manually tighten or loosen the laces using a set of buttons on the side.
In 2011, Nike released 1,500 pairs of a limited edition version of McFly’s shoes, but they were just a regular, non-automatic shoe. The proceeds raised $4.7 million for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.
But the patent for the automated shoe was already in the works.
The company filed a patent for the power-lacing version back in 2009.
The 2015 Nike Mags will be available to buy through an auction next spring with proceeds going to Fox’s charity.
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