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Nike to Unveil Self Lacing Shoes?
xTK-421x writes "Looks like Nike is announcing tonight (8:30PM PST) that they've finally been able to create the self lacing shoes from Back to the Future 2. TechCrunch reported on receiving an invitation to a Nike event taking place in Los Angeles today, where Nike would announce the release of the Air Mags, the self-lacing shoes that first made their appearance in Back to the Future II."
It would be cheaper to hire sweatshop labourers to follow you around and tie your shoes as necessary.
2015 is right around the corner. Pepsi Throwback should have been named Pepsi Perfect.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Where's my hoverboard?
Ok, so we have the self lacing shoes, but I won't be happy until I can buy my very own hoverboard. Wheels are for lamers.
I read the internet for the articles.
Like these?
Racks with shoes that look like something from BFTF. Also looks like the racks you see at a ski hill when you rent your ski or snowboard boots. So what?
Are we just padding stories with multimedia?
The future is here.
Is there actually a benefit to self lacing shoes?
I don't see much value in such a development.
Now if they could make the shoe lighter or conform better, but just automatic, I don't see the value proposition.
... then we can probably expect the hoverboard will be made by Sony. Which will then need a memorystick in order to use - but only after you register it through your PS4. Anyone caught using a non-hovering board on any surface afterwards will be subsequently sued for patent infringement.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I dont care about the self-tying shoes. I wouldnt even be all that disappointed if they didnt make a hoverboard. But I pray that no one is trying to make the hideous jacket with the 4-ft long accordion sleeve. If anyone tries, they should be shot on sight.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
So this is the last generation that will know how to tie even basic knots.
*sigh*
Acknowledging that there's still a few years to check some of these off...
Self-lacing sneakers? YES
Mr. Fusion? SADLY, NO
Hoverboards? NO
1980s nostalgia? SOME (and I'm sure someone has opened a Cafe '80s somewhere)
Flying cars? NO (nothing practical, anyways)
Video calls? YES (though not quite as depicted, and what was with all those fax machines?)
Video games without controllers? YES
Flat panel screens? YES
Chicago Cubs, World Series Champs? OH HELL NO
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
Didn't velcro make laced shoes already obsolete?
And trying to feed 1.21GW through the rear wheels of a Delorean would almost ce4rtainly leave two burning lines of rubber, but no time travel.
The lace is a tie.
It's high time we move on from the useless and medieval shoelace. Living in the humid US Southeast, my sweat opens shoelaces on my running shoes faster than Houdini unlacing a straitjacket. They already make cycling shoes with velcro straps and plastic fasteners that would work great in running shoes, but for some reason athletic shoes have a focus on form rather than function.
"Your jacket is now dry."
Nobody calls me Chicken...
... because we all know that blacks aren't very intelligent...
Probably can't even tie their own shoelaces...
My wife and I have been extraordinarily disappointed to hear other parents admitting that their children (through third grade) don't know how to tie shoes, simply because the kids have never been given anything but slip-ons and velcro-type shoes of various kinds. A few parents have admitted that they almost never wear anything but crocs and flip-flops. Yeesh.
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
Okay, self lacing shoes are stupid by definition. Laces are cheap, relatively easy, and far more reliable than an electronic version. The shoes in BTTF are power and electronic driven. I could go around buying batteries and replacement shoes every time they break down, or I could just buy a pair of regular sneakers and be happy. Laces tying in most cultures is a child's rite of passage and everyone knows how to do it these days.
In order to be interesting, first I believe you have to have a mechanical method, by where someone twists or pulls on something to tighten the sneakers, not electric based. But more importantly any solution has to be as reliable/as cheap/as easy as laces, and be better than sneakers on at least one of those points. Even the style people who buy $150 shoes just because they have some sports player's name on them are not going to be too impressed. Laces are like $.05 to make these days and a $150 shoe with laces vs $150 with a snazzy new lacing system is going to eventually get killed by Nike because it's not cost effective.
Now kindly get your hoverboard off my lawn.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Try elastic laces. I've been using them for 5+ years on my various running shoes. Once you've set them, there's no need to unknot them; just slip your foot in. They are plenty snug to hold your feet in your shoes, plus there is enough give to accommodate swelling if you're running for a long time.
They are trying to get in ahead of Blake Bevin's kickstarter project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blakebevin/power-laces
Well, it's an interesting idea.
I'll make you a deal, Nike....
I'll buy those shoes when you (or someone else) comes up with an 80s-style vest that blow-dries itself after contact with water.
Build one that dries my hair on the way to work (in my car that flies and navigates itself) and I'll pay you an extra $100 for those spiffy shoes. Well, given inflation, I mean $10,000.
I'll sue you for $100,000,000,000 when I lie in a hospital bed suffering from freakin' laziness and over-exerted 80s-coolness attempts. :>
HUMOR. :)
How fucking lazy have Americans gotten that they can't even tie their own fucking shoes?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1230434124/power-laces
http://www.power-laces.com/
I wonder how this will affect Blake's design / production.
GREAT SCOTT!
Lister: Sometimes, I think it's cruel giving machines a personality. My mate Petersen once bought a pair of shoes with Artificial Intelligence. 'Smart Shoes' they were called. It was a neat idea. No matter how blind drunk you were, they could always get you home. But he got rattled one night in Oslo and woke up the next morning in Burma. You see, his shoes got bored going from his local to his flat. They wanted to see the world, you know. He had a hell of a job getting rid of them. No matter who he sold them to, they'd show up again the next day. He tried to shut them out, but they just kicked the door down.
Rimmer: Is this true?
Lister: Yeah. The last thing I heard, they sort of... robbed a car and drove it into a canal. They couldn't steer, you see.
Rimmer: Really?
Lister: Yeah. Petersen was really, really blown away about it. He went to see a priest. The priest told him... he said it was alright and all that, when shoes are happy that they'd get into heaven. You see, it turns out shoes have 'soles'.
Rimmer: Ah, what a sad story. Wait a minute.
[Thinks for a minute]
Rimmer: How did they open the car door?
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
What? This is 4 years early: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096874/
Do you realize what this could do to the space time continuum?!
Oh wait, there's nothing to prove they didn't exist before 2015...
Thank you Nike. We realize you had a choice of schmucks to freely promote your ridiculous looking new shoes. We thank you for using /. as your viral marketing conduit of choice.
I don't want to charge my shoes and I don't want to be tased by TSA when find electronics embedded in my shoes. Did you view the charging station drawing? It's huge!
Does one shoe tightness fit everyone? I never tie my shoes; they're lose enough to slip on while tied. I know others who tightly tie them every time they're put on. It doesn't sound like the electronic laces are adjustable.
With my 2 phones, still camera, mini hd camera, and laptop, where the hell am I going to plug in another daily use device that requires constant charging?
That'll be the new 'middle class' once the GOP are done with labor laws.
On the other hand if we leave 'em along with Democrats, we'll all be begging to be an official Government Grand High Poobah Shoe Tier just to have any job at all.
$1 minimum wage would actually mean high school kids could find jobs again. Why does a high-school kid need to earn $30/hour again?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
At least according to this AP release:
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.
I mean really, Nike...WTF?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Efr2TaEPo
There are plenty of shoe types that do not even have laces. Hell, I myself own flip-flops, loafers, pull-on ankle boots and galloshes -- that's enough footwear to get me through all four seasons.
"so clearly something is afoot."
I see what you did there.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
There are only 1500 pairs, and they're all going to be auctioned on ebay, for charity.
http://www.slashgear.com/nike-mag-official-details-released-in-full-08178190/
Double knot.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
They have everything except the power laces.
Seems we will have to wait until 2015.
---no wait! this is slashdot!
LOVE to be a stickler:
This is not actually self-LACING shoes--those shoes are already laced. This is automatic tensioning, not even tying...
where are the Plutonium at my corner drug store?
Rare earth magnets operate at room temperature just fine. The problem is that they are not statically stable. Any pitching beyond perfectly aligned will cause the device to quickly and violently flip over, requiring excessive force to subsequently remove it from the ground.
Disregarding the hoverboard feasibility issue for a moment, I wanted to point out that it is possible to force the magnetic flux of an array to be almost entirely on one side of the array: Halbach Array. Use the array's flux to induce an opposing field in loops of wire via induction.
Fun fact: Halbach Arrays are the reason many of those flat sheet refrigerator magnets only "stick" with one side and fall off if applied facing reverse.
So, now we have replaced the issue of prying the hoverboard free if it is flipped deck-side down by making it twice as difficult to free the hoverboard if it sticks to a light pole deck-side up. Progress! (haha)
Wiki Nike Mag Saw a video about the shoe the other day.