Nike just announced a product which – while not explicitly a ‘Back to the Future’ tie-in – will surely have fans losing their minds: consumer self-lacing shoes. Called the HyperAdapt 1.0, it’s a self-lacing system that relies on sensors built into the heel to determine the size and width of your feet for a firm fit.
We got a teaser of this last year when Nike sent Michael J. Fox a pair of concept self-lacing shoes as part of the ‘Back to the Future Day’ festivities. We were told that we’d see a lot more of this kind of tech really soon, and it looks like they’ve fulfilled their end of the bargain with the HyperAdapt 1.0. It’s 1.0 presumably because there will be a 2.0 which laces… better.
It’s currently manually controlled, which means you gotta reach down and change the settings if it’s too tight or too loose. But, Nike says, they’re hoping to improve that in the future – creating a shoe that adapts automatically to you as you move. The press release for the shoes says that they ‘manifest the unimaginable’ but they are very imaginable, and have been imagined repeatedly by everybody since ‘Back to the Future Part II’
Nike also showed off some other goodies, like an anti-mud polymer for football boots and a new performance tracking app for athletes.
Great Scott, indeed. They’ll be available at the end of 2016.
Source: Nike
Image: Back to the Future Part II
