'Back to the Future II' inspired Nike's HyperAdapt 1.0
Yesterday, Nike revealed the release date of its HyperAdapt 1.0, a pair of Marty McFly-inspired self-lacing shoes. The futuristic sneakers first appeared in the hit 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II and have now become a reality.
In the film, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his friend Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Christopher Lloyd) travel to 2015, and the power-lacing footwear arrived just a year later than predicted.
Tinker Hatfield, the designer of the HyperAdapt 1.0, came up with the idea after returning from a brainstorming session with Back to the Future film trilogy director Robert Zemeckis. He asked Hatfield and fellow Nike designer Mark Parker to create a 21st-century-like shoe.
Hatfield became one of the Air Jordan lead developers. He also designed the Nike Air Trainer, the world’s first cross training shoes. Currently Nike’s Design and Special Projects VP, Hatfield oversees the company’s Innovation Kitchen lab, and Mark Parker is Nike’s CEO.
Nike sent Michael J. Fox the first pair
In the sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future, Marty puts on Nike Mag tennis shoes with automatic shoelaces. 15 years later, an online petition asking for production of the iconic kicks caught the attention of Tinker Hatfield.
Hatfield then designed them but without the power-lacing technology. Nike auctioned a limited quantity of 1,510 pairs at prices ranging between $2,300 and $9,959. Proceeds went to the The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research.
They announced another set of replicas, this time featuring the tech, on October 21, 2015, the exact date when Marty McFly time-traveled to the future. They sent the first pair to Michael J. Fox. However, Nike and Hatfield did not stop there. Last March, they unveiled the HyperAdapt 1.0 shoe, a consumer-market model of the Air Mag.
HyperAdapt 1.0 tech release date
Nike said that adaptive fit is the name of the self-lacing technology featured in the HyperAdapt 1.0. Through a pressure sensor located in the heel, the tech senses when the wearer slips his foot in the shoe, and then adapts it by tightening the laces.
The adaptive fit uses a combination of its sensor, motor, battery and cable system with the algorithmic pressure equation needed to adjust the shoe to the foot. If wearers feel it is too tight, they can push two buttons located at the sides of the sneakers to set the it manually.
The HyperAdapt 1.0 will hit select Nike retail locations in the United States on November 28. Even though Nike has not revealed its price yet, buyers will have to make an appointment to experience and purchase the Back to the Future self-lacing shoes.
Source: Wired
