Nike's self-lacing sneakers finally go on sale November 28th



Nike has finally announced when it will begin selling its self-lacing sneakers inspired by the shoes worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to The Future II. According to a tweet from the company's Heidi Burgett, the Hyper Adapt 1.0 will be available for "experience & purchase" starting on the 28th of November, but only in select Nike locations in the US. Pricing is still unknown, but expect a "high price tag," according to a Wired feature on the shoe's development.
YOU HAVE TO CHARGE THESE SHOES
You can check out the full story from Wired for a more detailed look at how the sneakers were made, but here are the key points. Each shoe has an internal cable system made from fishing line and a pressure sensor in the sole. When you put your foot in, the cables tighten based on "an algorithmic pressure equation," and this fit can be adjusted throughout the day with a pair of buttons near the tongue.
LEDs in the heel light up when the shoes are tightening and when it's on low battery, and all the internal electronics mean that yes, you do have to charge these shoes. It takes three hours for a full charge and each charge last about two weeks, with Nike providing a magnetic clip-on charger similar to that used by Apple for the Apple Watch. It's also worth noting that the thick nylon laces you see on the top of the sneaker are just "visual aids" — they tighten, but they're not what's keeping the shoe hugged to your foot.
Nike has been teasing these shoes for years now, first auctioning off a non-functional pair that were replicas of the Back to The Future props in 2011. (Side-note: these props were placed on a platform with crew members underneath that pulled on wires to tighten the laces by hand.) Then, last October, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield sent a working prototype to Fox himself. In March this year, the company announced a more streamlined-looking consumer version actually intended for the mass market, and these are the HyperAdapts that go on sale in November.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DirectX 12 vs DirectX 11

Image
DirectX 12 vs DirectX 11 – How DX12 will transform PC  gaming on Windows 10 DIRECTX 12 VS DIRECTX 11 – WHY DOES IT MATTER? Windows 10  has arrived and, along with integrated Cortana, Xbox One game streaming and a fancy new web browser, one of its key features is DirectX 12, the latest version of the operating system’s gaming API. A software layer that sits between the hardware that powers our computers and the software that runs on them,  DirectX is at the heart of the vast majority of games that run on Windows.  The other major gaming API is OpenGL, which as its name suggests is an open source API. Both offer very similar key functions, but it’s DirectX that tends to be at the heart of most bigger games. Microsoft talks up the amazing new capabilities for every new release of DirectX, but with DirectX 12 it really does have some key new features, at least when it comes to improving performance. It also has some new effects tools and functions for mak...
Read more

Android N's "Freeform Windows"

Last week, we wrote about the " freeform window " mode in the Android N Developer Preview. Brief mentions in the developer documents and hints in the code pointed to Android someday displaying apps in resizable floating windows, just like in a desktop OS. Freeform window mode isn't normally accessible in the current dev preview, but shortly after the post, we were contacted by reader  Zhuowei Zhang  with instructions on how to make it work. We'll get to the instructions, but first let's talk about what's actually here. Freeform window mode is just what we imagined. It's a dead ringer for  Remix OS —multiple Android apps floating around inside windows—and it might be the beginnings of a desktop operating system . It works on Android N phones and tablets, and once the mode is enabled, you'll see an extra button on thumbnails in the Recent Apps screen. To the left of the "X" button that pops up after a second or tw...
Read more

The Chord Mojo turns good headphones into great ones

Image
The best gadget you never knew you wanted Audio processing isn’t sexy. Better sound doesn’t lend itself to easy marketing through numbers or pretty posters, and so many companies treat it as an afterthought when designing their products. The  blissful ignorance  of "good enough" audio pervades the world of consumer technology, leaving only a niche of audio enthusiasts supporting a few boutique hi-fi manufacturers. Things have been like this for quite some time, but recently a new gadget was introduced that bridges the gap between the many and the few, and its name is the  Chord Mojo . The Mojo is an audio processor and amplifier that’s smaller than a pack of cards yet delivers the awesome performance of much larger rivals. Honestly, I think its size works to its disadvantage because it looks like, and is, a portable unit you can plug into your phone and use off its 10-hour battery. By audiophile standards, it’s almost  too  practical. But ...
Read more