Nike has confirmed that the self-lacing shoes seen in Back to the Future 30 years ago are finally real and travelling around New York.
Today is, of course, Back to the Future day. What does this mean? Well, your Twitter feed is filled with hoverboard gifs. That’s because 21 October 2015 is the year Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to in the film.
Amongst its numerous futuristic predictions, many have proved rather prescient. Video calls, for example, or 3D, augmented reality videos.
However, a lot of the fashion predictions haven’t come true. We don’t walk around with our pockets hanging out, we don’t have jackets that blowdry themselves as you wear them and we don’t have self-lacing shoes.
Well, we didn’t have self-lacing shoes. But now Nike has confirmed that “first pair of self-lacing Nike Mag shoes is in New York City”.
Out in the wild. Walking around.
Of course, many of us knew this was coming. Nike went so far as tweeting Michael J Fox, the actor who played Marty McFly, yesterday about a reunion of sorts today.
.@realmikefox see you tomorrow.
— Nike (@Nike) October 21, 2015
It is simply too good a marketing opportunity to turn down. And now that they are knocking about, be prepared to see an awful lot of them on social media.
Of course Twitter, ever the divisive platform, is awash with those both overly interested in the footwear, and those greatly disappointed with the ‘future’ we’ve created.
There would be flying cars, hooverboards & self lacing shoes, but Clara messed up the continuum by delaying that train. #BackToTheFutureDay
— Orlando Castro (@kleaner) October 21, 2015
It's 2015 and we still don't have self lacing shoes?!! Just these stupid phones that do everything we could ever need. #BackToTheFutureDay
— Brandon Stewart (@BrandonDeliver) October 21, 2015
I might not have a flying car or self-lacing shoes, but I do have tractors controlled by satellites from space. #BackToTheFuture
— Zach Hunnicutt (@zjhunn) October 21, 2015
No flying cars or hoverboards. 3D is expensive and unimpressive. No rehydrated pizza or self lacing shoes. Future 6/10
— Tim Bledsoe (@TimBledsoe) October 21, 2015
Main image via Garry Knight on Flickr
