Nike Auctions Back To The Future Air Mag Shoes

After years of rumors, Nike is finally selling a run of Back to The Future shoes. These Nike Air Mags are like the ones that Marty McFly put on in the movie and they laced themselves up. The shoes are going for a few thousand on eBay and all the proceeds benefit Parkinson’s research. Sadly, all they do is light up and look cool, they’re not self-tying. Which is why this guy, who has a working prototype of a self-lacing shoe, should have gotten a production run instead.

As you can see in this screenshot from when Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s, played Marty McFly in the movies, and whose Parkinson’s foundation the proceeds go to, went on Letterman, the shoes have a tell-tale velcro strap for tightening.noselflace.jpg
But about a year ago, a solo guy build a working model of his own Air Mags-esque shoes. These feature the iconic self-lacing action. They’re much more exciting than replicas with a velcro strap and lights that go on when you push a button. That’s not futuristic! That technology has been around since before even Back to The Future came out!Sadly, it’s cost-prohibitive to put these mechanisms inside real shoes on a limited-run basis and too many of the sweatshop childrens’ fingers would get caught inside the gears. So these watered-down versions, and the knowledge that the money goes to help find a cure for Parkinson’s, will have to suffice.

Here’s a clip of the only real Air Mags that have ever existed, which is inside the realm of imagination:

Nike Air Mag Auction [eBay]

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