This is an original pair of Nike MAG Back to the Future shoes that were made as part of a very limited edition run in 2016. Incredibly, they feature both the lights and self-tightening laces seen on the originals in Back to the Future II.
The shoes from Back to the Future II were designed in 1989 by Tinker Hatfield. They were essentially just movie props and a number of pairs were made, including some with the self-lacing system and illumination in the sole. Due to technological constraints, the shoes weren’t offered for sale to the public at the time.
The shoes look essentially indistinguishable from the prop version worn by Marty McFly in 1989’s Back to the Future II.
In the early 2000s an online petition received hundreds of thousands of signatures, asking for Nike to release a real pair of Nike MAG shoes for the general public. Tinker Hatfield saw this petition, and after a conversation with footwear innovator Tiffany Beers, the duo decided to see if they could make the MAG a reality.
They spent thousands of hours on the design, and had to start from scratch again a number of times due to the difficulties of creating a version of the shoe that was functional and tough enough to be worn by consumers out and about in town.
The Nike MAG Shoes Officially Debut
In September of 2011 the final design was ready, and 1,500 pairs were made. They were largely sold on eBay as part of a special program to raise money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. These shoes looked the same as those from the film, but lacked the futuristic features.
In total, $4.7 million USD was raised, Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki stepped up and offered to match the proceeds up to $5 million USD. As a result the total amount raised was $9.4 million USD.
E.A.R.L. (Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing)
At the time, many believed that this was the end for the Nike MAG series and that the loop that had been opened in 1989 had been closed in 2011. This wasn’t the case though, as Hatfield was hard at work at Nike on a secret program to create a very limited run of MAGs for public display on the exact date that Marty McFly first landed in the future, October 21, 2015. Deliveries of the shoe would commence almost a year later in October of 2016.
Just 89 pairs of these functional shoes would be created, and once again the proceeds would go to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. The vast majority of the shoes were offered in a public raffle on the RallyUp fundraising platform, with tickets costing $10 USD each. This was seen as the most fair way of ensuring that everyone had a shot to get their hands on a pair.
Of course, it didn’t take long for raffle winners to start offering their shoes for sale online, with prices stretching well into the high five figures. This version of the Nike MAG featured a full electronic lacing system called E.A.R.L. (Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing), which senses the size of the foot and then tightens the laces correctly for the size and shape of the wearer’s foot.
Above Video: This is the original CNN story on the 2016 Nike MAG release, it shows Michael J. Fox receiving the first pair, and it shows the shoes in action.
They also featured the illumination panels in the sole, lighting up blue just like the originals worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. Given the fact that only 89 were made, a reference to the film being released in 1989, this second version of the Nike MAG is now one of the most collectible sneakers on earth.
The pair of 2016 Nike MAGs you see here is one of those original 89 sets with the self lacing and illuminated sole. They’re now due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s in a few days time with a price guide of $45,000 – $60,000 USD. If you’d like to read more about them or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images: RM Sotheby’s
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
