Gallery: Here's How Nike's (Real) Self-Lacing Marty McFly Shoes Work
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Here's a basic rendering of how the shoe will look, or as Nike puts it: "an isometric view of a preferred embodiment of an article of footwear in an open position.”
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Here we get a look at the automatic ankle cinching mechanism in an open and closed state. Part of the idea here is to constrict ankle movement, which sounds a little like being trapped, but might be good news for ankle rollers out there.
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What would a self-lacing shoe be without self-lacing laces? These are the auto-laces in open and actively lacing positions. The patent gets into a lot of detail about foot width---so if you have particularly wide feet, you may want to take these babies for a test run. You know, when that day comes.
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There will be some sort of "button" (or tab, or lever, or something) that you can use to loosen the shoes. So maybe there's hope for the wide-foot among us after all. Here, Nike also explains that users will be able to manually loosen the ankle strap by pulling on it. Manual? How retro!
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Figure 12 is a sort of peek inside how the automatic lacing mechanism works. Nike’s description says “any type of power can be utilized,” and lists electrical, mechanical, and chemical as options. Nike suggests it could used an electric motor that uses electrical energy to operate, but also talks about using a battery-powered motor. (The patent then gets into a lot of nitty gritty about battery size and charging.)
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Figure 13 is a detailed account of holes—lower holes, upper holes, all for your self-lacing laces. “1330” refers to a “rigid hollow plate,” which will help guide certain laces into the correct holes.
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In Figure 23, the patent talks about the "hollow channel" that the automatic cinching ankle strap will guide itself into. Nike also says that maybe there could be a motor here that would rotate the shaft for "additional tension." The housing component would likely have some sort of lock that would keep everything in place.
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Here’s yet another view of the ankle cinching system (top down, like you’re looking into the shoe). One point of this rendering is to show that a foot is totally able to get into the shoe when the cinching system is open. The patent explains that once you put in your foot, a sensor will tell the cinching system to go ahead and close, and “locking mechanism may receive a signal to release ankle strap.” Nike says a coil spring would be used to do this—but fear not: Your foot isn’t totally trapped. “In some cases, a user can pull on a lever or tab to open ankle strap."
