As a child it was always a race to be able to tie your own laces, and almost as soon as you could tie them, you no longer wanted to. What then ensued was a stage of life where at any given opportunity, you would attempt to remove the shoe without having to undo the laces. The dual benefit of this was you could then force your foot back in them, when it came time to but them back on – with a bit of ‘gentle’ encouragement of course.
Advance further in life, to an age of sporting interest, and the role of laces took an altogether different hue of importance. Security and reassurance is given when the laces are firm and the shoes are secured on your foot, and conversely, insecurity is felt when they are not.
This new innovation from Nike takes into account both scenarios; it’ll make both the kid and sportsman in you happy. Win, win.
“Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It’s about accelerating toward it. We’re able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.”
~ Tinker Hatfield, Lead Designer, NIKE
This new self-lacing design from Nike is not necessarily a new concept from Nike, but it represents the first incarnation they’ve been able create for use by the general public. From 2013, Tinker Hatfield and Tiffany Beers (Senior Innovator, NIKE) have been working on a whole host of new lacing systems, resulting in prototypes and eventually resulting in a self-lacing Nike Mag in April 2015, which fittingly was gifted to Michael J Fox (aka Marty McFly).
Following on from that, today they have announced the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 which is their first performance trainer to feature adaptive lacing. So how does it work?
“When you step in, your heel will hit a sensor and the system will automatically tighten. Then there are two buttons on the side to tighten and loosen. You can adjust it until it’s perfect.”
~ Tiffany Beers, Senior Innovator, NIKE
The third co-conspirator on the project was , NIKE, Inc. President & CEO Mark Parker, who was understandably intrigued by the future implications of the project and what it could mean for the sporting world. The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 essentially allows athletes to make swift micro-adjustments during use.
So in summary, the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 is the first step into the future of adaptive performance. While it’s manually operated (i.e., athlete controlled) it does show the feasibility of an automated, nearly symbiotic relationship between the foot and shoe.
The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 will only be available to members of Nike+ beginning Holiday 2016 in three colors; find out more about the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 via the link below.