Arts & Entertainment

Back to the Future’s coolest invention is now a reality

By Michal Addady
CHILE-US-CINEMA-BACK TO THE FUTURE
Picture of a replica of the sneakers that actor Michael J. Fox used in the movie "Back to the Future'' in 1985, being displayed during an anniversary event at the Fashion Museum in Santiago on October 21, 2015 -- the exact date in the future that Fox's Marty McFly travelled to in a souped-up DeLorean fitted with a flux capacitor in the second part of the blockbuster trilogy. Fans of the series are marking Wednesday's landmark date by celebrating some of the predictions that came true in the futuristic saga -- and some that didn't. The films follow the time-travelling adventures of young Marty, a teenager living in small-town America in 1985 played by Michael J. Fox. He sets out in a DeLorean car converted to voyage the space-time continuum by his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown. AFP PHOTO / MARTIN BERNETTI (Photo credit should read MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)
Photograph by Martin Bernetti — AFP/Getty Images

Self-lacing shoes are here. Nike is finally making the famous sneakers and gave its first pair of Mag shoes to none other than the star of Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox.

Self-lacing Nikes were one of the futuristic inventions that Marty McFly, Fox’s character, discovered when he time traveled to this date — October 21, 2015 — in the 1989 sequel. Nike came out with a pair of sneakers in 2011 that were similar to those that Marty wore in the film, but without the self-lacing technology.

But even though it’s not yet available to the public, the movie wasn’t exactly wrong in its prediction. Today, Michael J. Fox received the first pair of self-lacing Nike Mag shoes. The Michael J. Fox Foundation tweeted a picture of him wearing the shoes, adding that they will be available to the public in the spring of 2016.

In a letter to the actor, Tinker Hatfield, the shoe designer, stated that proceeds from the sale of the upcoming Nike Mag shoes will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s, a disease that Fox lives with. The company donated proceeds from the 2011 Nike Mag replicas as well, and was able to raise $9.7 million. Hatfield writes that he hopes to raise even more next year.