Nike's Self-Lacing Shoes Will Go On Sale This Year (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 self-lacing shoes have been officially unveiled. We know they will go on sale later this year, but we do not know the price. "When you step in, your heel will hit a sensor and the system will automatically tighten," explained Tiffany Beers, the project's technical lead. There are two buttons on the side of the shoe that allow you to tweak how loose or tight the laces are. The concept behind the HyperAdapt shoes bring to mind Marty McFly's Nike Mags from Back to the Future, even if they do not look very similar. Nike hasn't yet revealed how the shoes work from a technical point of view but they do lineup with the US patent filed by the company in 2009. The HyperAdapt 1.0 shoes will be exclusively available to users of the Nike+ app later this year in three color combinations -- white, grey and black.

Comments

Battery powered

[Meshach]

From the article:

Presumably the lacing mechanism is battery-powered, but there's no word on how long the battery might last or how you might recharge it.

I never thought I would see the day where shoes would be battery powered.

Imaging not being able to take off shoes because the battery is dead.

Had these when I was a kid

[Gavagai80]

Instead of pushing a button to adjust tightness, I just pulled two straps to the desired tightness. They called it "velcro" and it worked quite well and quite fast for those who didn't want to / couldn't tie their shoes, for hundreds less dollars.

Still...

[sycodon]

Springs, bouncy soles, fancy graphics, LEDs, etc...those are gimmicks that idiots fall for.

Self lacing is a practical advantage for millions of disabled people.