Mekaael: The world advances with one question: “How do I make this easier?” We ask this question in order to identify aspects of our life, that we repeatedly and constantly do, with the goal of finding an easier or more efficient way of completing these basic tasks. From walking, we got horse riding, boats, cars, planes, scooters, bikes, skateboards, etc. Some of the most simple tasks you find in your daily routine are much easier than they were in previous years. In the last decade, Nike has been attempting to revolutionize the ease it is to tie sneakers, with auto-lacing shoes.
In the year 1989, the sequel to the hit movie ‘Back to the Future’ was released. In this movie specifically, viewers were taken by storm as Marty McFly was seen wearing a pair of auto-lacing Nikes, called ‘Air Mags’. The shoes were so unique and advanced that fans started obsessing over the pairs. 27 years later, Nike ended up releasing their first auto-lacing sneaker. There was a very limited quantity of this pair released, and they were auctioned off for nearly $70,000 USD per pair. This was only the beginning of auto-lacing shoes for Nike.
Nike then released their own auto lacing shoe under the name ‘Hyper Adapts’ for a retail price of $720 USD. The shoe released in a handful of colorways and the shoes came with a charger. The way the technology works in the sneakers is that once you put them on, you are able to either let the shoe adjust its tightness to perfectly fit your feet or press two buttons that are inside the shoe which adjust the size, making them tighter or looser on command. Following that release, Nike would completely take over the basketball market after releasing the ‘Nike Adapt BB’ and ‘Nike Adapt BB 2.0.” These shoes are autolacing basketball shoes with various eye catching features, including being able to adjust the size of the shoe from your phone and from the shoe itself, being able to adjust the color of the light on the shoe, and many more. The Adapt BB’s were unveiled at the public by two of the NBA’s most promising young stars, Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum.
Some people may not be as updated with the sneaker community or sneaker market and may be confused as to why this is a big deal. This is a huge step for the technological advancements that companies are going to have to start making in order to keep up with Nike and their journey to start producing more shoes and various models of shoes with their auto lacing technology. These releases have lifted the limit for what the sneaker market could be in the next decade. The released of the Adapt collection by Nike has forced different sneaker brands to speed up the development of their new sneakers and come up with new ways of adding technological advancements to their sneakers, making the sneaker market more competitive, similar to how it was back in 2016-17, when Adidas and Nike were neck and neck for the best sneaker brand.
Photo: Futurepedia
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