Written by Cami Cox
Screen icon Michael J. Fox, in his famous role as teenage time-traveler Marty McFly, travels to the year 2015 in “Back to the Future Part II.” While much of the fictional future in this film resembles little of today’s 2014 reality (flying cars, bionic body parts, hovering skateboards and the National Weather Service actually controlling the weather), there is one futuristic item from the film that leading global sneaker magazine SoleCollector reports could be coming to a pair of feet near you sometime next year.
In the film, Marty dons a pair of futuristic Nikes with “power laces”; the shoe’s laces automatically tighten and secure themselves when the foot is inserted. In 2011, Nike manufactured replicas of these automated shoes and auctioned them off on eBay to raise funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research – though they weren’t distributed for purchase to the general public. While “Back to the Future” fans bid millions of dollars to acquire a pair of McFly’s famous footwear, the replicas lacked the one essential, which was power laces as displayed in the film; at that time, the technology just wasn’t there to make the shoes self-lacing.
While the Nike MAG, produced in limited numbers in 2011, glowed like the authentic Marty McFly future sneakers, the shoes didn’t feature the iconic power laces made famous by the film’s footwear.
Today, however, Marty’s power-lacing sneaks are not only more feasible as far as the technology is concerned – they are going to become a reality, according to Nike designer Tinker Hatfield.
On Feb. 14 at the Flight Lab in New Orleans, a new interactive store and design center operated by the Jordan Brand, Hatfield told members of the press that power laces will become a reality in 2015.
That brief confirmation has sent waves through the news media these last few days. Whether the self-lacing shoes will come in the form of a high-top sneaker design ala “Back to the Future” remains to be seen – but McFly fans worldwide are buzzing about the futuristic footwear that could soon be theirs.
