Nike releases 'Back To The Future' shoes

(Updated 12:40PM) The day sneaker-heads the world over had waited for 23 years has come: Marty McFly’s auto-lacing Nike shoes are finally here, straight out of the 80’s movie Back To The Future II. Sports shoe maker Nike has posted on YouTube a video of its Nike Air MAG, more popularly known as Marty McFly’s Kicks, ahead of its official release on Thursday, Sept. 8 in Los Angeles, USA (Friday, Sept. 9 in Manila). Marty McFly is the protagonist in the popular Back To The Future movie trilogy and was portrayed by actor Michael J. Fox. An iconic scene in the trilogy’s second installment has Marty time-traveling from 1985 to 2015 and donning a pair of Nike shoes that actually ties itself automatically. In an online statement, Nike said that its MAG shoe “was designed to be a precise replica of the original from Back to the Future II… down to the contours of the upper, the glowing LED panel and the electroluminescent NIKE in the strap." “The 2011 NIKE MAG illuminates with the pinch of the “ear" of the high top, glowing for five hours per charge," the online statement concluded. Nike declared that 1500 pairs of the 2011 NIKE MAG will be auctioned on eBay’s Fashion Vault “to help create a future without Parkinson’s disease." Michael J. Fox has Parkinson’s disease. All net proceeds of the ten-day auction (Sept. 8-18, Pacific Standard Time) would go directly to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Nike said the contributions from the auction would effectively double a previous US$50 million donation given to the same foundation. As of posting time, the highest bid on eBay for a pair of Nike MAG shoes was US$9,100. Matt Halfhill of shoe aficionado website Nice Kicks wrote about how he got an invitation from Nike regarding the launch of the formerly futuristic footwear, complete with an iPod with a message from McFly’s dear mentor Dr. Emmet Brown (actor Christopher Lloyd). Last year, Nice Kicks also wrote about how Nike registered patents for an auto-lacing pair of shoes, gushing that “it would be the definition of game changer; the perfect intersection between performance and nostalgia." Great Scott! It’s about time. See you in the future. — VS/TJD, GMA News