STYLE
NIKE "back to the future" limited edition kicks
PORTLAND: Nike is
going back to the future.
The sneaker maker on Thursday said it has
created a limited-edition shoe based on a glowing pair that appeared in the
popular 1989 movie ”Back to the Future II.” The 2011 Nike Mag is designed to be
an exact replica of the fictional sneaker, including a glowing Nike name on the
strap. But unlike the movie version, these shoes won’t lace themselves.
Nike will release 1,500 pairs of the 2011
Nike Mag sneaker for auction on eBay and donate all proceeds to the Michael J.
Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. Fox famously played Marty
McFly in the ”Back to the Future” time-travel trilogy, where he wore the shoes
during a visit to the year 2015.
”It hasn’t gone unnoted by us that there is
something special about that shoe and, of course, the movie,” said famed Nike
shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, who helped design the original shoe and worked
on the latest version.
Limited-edition shoes can draw as much, if
not more mania, as a new movie or comic book release. Fans obsessively track
the latest news and are willing to camp out all night or spending hundreds or
more for a single pair online.
Nike’s collector sneaker has been long
awaited by shoe collectors and movie fans, who have been urging the company to
make them ever since the movie was released. There were roughly eight or ten
pairs used in the movie, some of which are in Nike’s possession and a few that
collectors somehow got their hands on.
Owning them, or even seeing a pair of them,
has become a singular pursuit for some fans. There was even an online campaign
a few years ago called ”McFly 2015, Make it Happen” that gathered thousands of
signatures to convince Nike to bring the McFly shoe back.
”This is the biggest thing that has happened
to sneakers since Michael Jordan, hands down,” said Matt Halfill, an avid shoe
collector who runs the website nicekicks.com and flew from Austin, Texas to Los
Angeles for the unveiling of the shoe on Thursday hours after Nike contacted
him. ”Other than the birth of one of my children, I wouldn’t have missed this
for anything.”
Nike Inc., based in Beaverton, Oregon,
decided more than four years ago to create the shoe, but was unsure when a pair
would be ready. Unlike the shoes in the movie, the real-life versions had to be
designed for day-to-day use. For instance, the design used in the movie
required Fox to wear a battery pack with wires running down his pants to light
the shoe, which was the best technology available at the time.
Hatfield said the Nike Mag has been difficult
to develop and the electrical systems, which illuminate the shoe for up to five
hours, have been one of the most challenging things the company has ever done
in footwear. But the timing seemed perfect to bring the shoe back to support a
bigger idea.
That Nike is releasing the shoe in 2011
enables it to take advantage of a matching grant for the foundation. Google
founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki have offered to match all
donations to the Michael J. Fox Foundation up to $50 million through the end of
2012.
”The project is exciting to me because it
brings together three very passionate audiences: the Parkinson’s community,
sneakerheads and ‘Back to the Future’ fans,” Fox said in a statement. ”With
their support we can accelerate our objective of finding a cure for
Parkinson’s.”
Nike also has created a faux ”lost scene”
from the film to promote the shoe that includes original cast members
Christopher Lloyd and Donald Fullilove, who will be joined by basketball star
Kevin Durant and renowned Nike designer Tinker Hatfield.
The auction begins Thursday and will end
Sept. 18.
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http://www.dawn.com/2011/09/09/nike-releases-famed-”back-to-the-future”-shoe.html
