The Self Tightening Shoe From The Future

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE SHOE FROM THE FUTURE

No Need For Laces…It’s The Future

Marty suits up outside of the DeLorian, with a pair of shoes no one has ever seen before.

A pair of shoes from the future.

The Nike Air Mags. The moment Marty puts them on, they tighten to his foot size, and the pain of tying shoes is a thing of the past. Not only did he rock this pair in the movie, but it was the pair of shoes he had on during the iconic hoverboard chase scene.

After Marty attempted to get the Sports Alamanac back from Biff, Biff obviously decided he was going to put up a fight. After Marty fought back and embarrassed him, Marty made a run for it.

He speeded out of the diner, “borrowed” a little girl’s hoverboard, and was chased by Biff on his much larger and more impressive hoverboard.

All while with these legendary self-tightening Nike Air Mags on his feet.

Give The People What They Want

After the release of the movie, fans of "Back to the Future" and sneaker enthusiasts expressed a strong interest in owning a real-life version of the self-lacing shoes.

It wasn't until several years later that Nike decided to bring this iconic shoe to reality.

In 2011, Nike announced the release of the Nike Air Mag, a limited-edition replica of the shoes seen in the film. These shoes were created with a design that closely resembled the fictional ones.

This release was highly anticipated and for a lot of fans, brought both the movie and the future into the palm of their hands…or rather

The soles of their feet.

Nike produced a limited run of these Nike Mag sneakers and auctioned them off to raise funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, as Michael J. Fox himself has Parkinson's disease. This charitable aspect added to the appeal of the shoes, and they became highly sought after by collectors and "Back to the Future" fans.

Back To The Past

There was actually an even more highly anticipated second limited release of these pairs.

But something was a little different.

In the year 2016, a more accurate pair was sent out into the world. This featured an electroluminescent outsole, rechargeable internal battery, glowing LEDs, and a luminescent logo.

But most importantly, these shoes featured a mechanism that allowed wearers to tighten the laces automatically by pressing a button.

The world’s first self-tightening shoes.

If the original replica shocked people, this was a game changer. Anyone who was obsessed with the movie had their eyes on these, and even if they weren’t fans, these shoes were and still are revolutionary.

The Giant Price Tag

If you don’t believe people enjoyed a limited pair of shoes from one of the most iconic movie series, then the price tag would prove you wrong.

The last sale on StockX for the 2011 pair was $23,000.

You could get a nice little car for that price.

The last sale on StockX for the 2016 pair was $76,925.

You could get a really nice little car for that price.

During the 2011 auction, Michael J. Fox was able to raise around $4.7 million for Parkinson’s research.

As for the 2016 pair, one sold for $52,000 at a public auction. This was almost double the usual resale price.

That release raised an estimated $6.7 million plus for the foundation.

This shoe showed not only how much wealthier movie fans were willing to pay for a piece of the movie magic, but also how futuristic shoes may be a lot closer than we think.

We may not have hoverboards even close to when the movies predict, but we did get the exact pair of kicks from 2015 that we saw on screen, making the future, according to the movie, right on time.