Nike brings 'Back to the Future' power shoelaces to the masses - CNET

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Nike just aounced a product that should cause "Back to the Future" fans to freak the heck out. The company revealed HyperAdapt 1.0, a self-lacing system triggered when you place your foot inside the shoe. When your heel hits a sensor, the laces automatically tighten. Two buttons on the side adjust the fit, making it tighter or looser.

Nike introduced the technology Wednesday by saying it has manifested the "unimaginable." Except it has been imagined. We saw a preview back in 1989 when Marty McFly doed a pair of Air Mags with power laces. And we've wanted them to be real ever since.

Nike designer Tinker Hatfield sees HyperAdapt as the perfect solution to adjusting the fit of shoes during athletic competitions where laces can loosen or shoes may feel too tight as feet swell. "It challenges traditional understanding of fit, proposing an ultimate solution to individual idiosyncrasies in lacing and tension preference," Nike says.

Actor Michael J. Fox, who played McFly, got a first chance to try out some real self-lacing shoes when Nike sent him a pair last year. That was in the midst of fan festivities around Back to the Future Day on October 21, 2015 (the day McFly arrived in the future during the 1989 film "Back to the Future: Part II").