Nike Air Mag - The Marty McFly Shoes Are Now A Reality

In 2011 Michael J. Fox or Marty McFly, if you wish, needed a way to generate some charity money to help his cause. He made a deal with Nike to create the Nike Air Mags...

(Written in 2011 Updated in 2013 including this introduction) For almost two decades since the film came out showing "self-lacing" Nike shoes, fans have wanted a chance to purchase a pair- even if they didn't work (for display?). Many have tried to convince Nike to build them but until now there was no viable way to do that (i.e. because the shoe on the show was only a prop, it didn't really work!). When Mike asked them to do it as a fundraiser they saw an opportunity to do both and ran with it. It's not clear to me if he paid for it or if they just did it due to the notoriety and charity surrounding it.

The shoes would be promoted for several months before being introduced and they would only be sold in a limited number. They would sell on eBay for a limited time and they wouldn't be cheap- unless $6,000.00 for a pair of Nike Air Mag's is what you consider cheap or affordable. The idea wasn't to get everyone to buy them but rather to consolidate the purchasing to a high end audience who'd bid on them for a certain amount of time. They went well over 20k each and the charity was funded- yay!

Below I'll consolidate my research (back then) and show you how cool it is including videos and pictures of these bad boys and one video created as one of the attempts to get Nike to build them. Michael J. Fox showed power in this one, of course who else could have?!

Self-Lacing "Kicks" With More Lights Than You Need

We all watched and loved the Back to the Future movie trilogy especially the second installment and thought how cool would it be to have those pimp shoes Marty wore in the year 2015.

Michael J. Fox Rocks!

Michael J. Fox is one of my childhood heroes. I can't explain it other than the fact that he reminded me of myself from Family Ties (not the arrogant part but the "witty" comebacks, want to be an entrepreneur and someone who (mainly the reason) looks young for his age but when he talks in the show he always shows his wisdom "age")....

Anyway, he's also funny and today his true inspiration is that he's fighting Parkinson's disease and is not letting it get him down, in fact he's fighting back by funding research, building foundations and fund raisers to pour money into finding the cure- something he wants more for those that survive him than himself as he realizes the likelihood of him being cured is nil to impossible; but the very drive to help others outside of selfish reasoning to doing things to help yourself is truly remarkable and how I try to live my life as well.

The First Auction ended in 2011 but to this day in 2013 people are still selling them... some under $1,000!

What I found inspirational about these shoes is that he came up with a way to turn a really cool imaginary shoe idea that many wanted as much as the hover board on the movies, into a way to generate an influx of money from all those rich kids and people with 5k to burn on an iconic shoe.

The second cool thing is that Nike has also partaken in helping this to become a reality. You won't be going to Footlocker or an outlet store to buy these babies- of which ALL proceeds go to the Michael J. Fox foundation not to some cleaver marketer who wants to profit from the robust idea .

They are only being sold by the foundation on eBay (through very controlled accounts), and the current bids (volume of bids in 2011) were around 42-60 on each one the opening day.

The bidding war breached at the time of this writing $6,000. I was thinking at first whoa- I'm not paying that, they are cool but not that cool- then I thought about it and realized what it's money is going towards. Parkinson's disease is truly becoming a problem in our society as more toxins, prescription drugs are starting to infiltrate our youth and even our elders.... This is a disease of the mind caused when plaque and other things block or lesson the electrical transmission between neurons (insulates) making it harder or impossible to think (to put it very mildly).

If I had 5k+ to blow on shoes (or rather charity) I'd definitely get them for that reason not merely to have them, but I suspect it'd be both counts.

This Was An Earlier Petition Attempt To Get Nike To Make Them- But MJ Fox Had A Better Idea

Conclusion

I saw a pair of shoes that "looked" like these years ago at footlocker- in a display, without the lights or self lacing gear, something that isn't that hard to create really- I mean com'on NIKE how hard was that?

Will this translate to other Nike shoes- likely not- I'm sure it wasn't the technology that was a problem but the aftermarket issues that arise from complex moving parts- the "they stop working because some idiot washed them" or the manufacturing process wasn't done right so half of them don't work correctly.

These are headaches Nike doesn't need, but this limited edition pair is not likely going to be worn, or even put on someone's foot other than to try them out or show a friend how they feel- which lowers the issues problem. Also, limited edition means limited liability issues, if one doesn't work- they paid a gem for them so fixing it would be more feasible, and likely they will have strict quality control in manufacturing as well as something that comes with them telling you "wear or break at your own risk- this is display only- a collector's item not actual shoes".

The real "Kick"? This will not only help the MJF foundation- but will set a precedence I'm sure in charity conceptualization for generating both great PR for companies like Nike (other shoes manufacturers Reebok and the like are likely already paying people to watch movies for ideas on how they can do this too but more so for 1. Charity 2. Their cut is the write off, and exposure,(which is a good thing for all).

I've been trying to conjure up an idea like this to use on Kickstarter.com a great way to fund a dream and product that otherwise may never come to market- Hoverboard anyone? One guy actually created a live hoverboard model- it's static but moves. It's basically a replica of the Matel hoverboard on the shoe, using real earth magnets on the bottom and an electromagnetic block to offer just enough push against the boards magnets to make the board actually over over the block and is removable- like those "space pens" that are built into a block that they sit on and using magnets to create a "force-field" to hold it there (but this one has no top magnet)... neat. Below is the video of this great "sculpture". Enjoy!

-Jerrico