FLOAT 100 · Sneakers · No. 15
Nike Mag 'Back to the Future' (2016, auto-lacing)
Twenty-seven years after a stagehand faked it with strings, Nike made 89 pairs of Marty McFly's shoes that really lace themselves, and it gave nearly all of them away by lottery at $10 a ticket.
- Year
- 2016
- Maker
- Nike
- By price in sneakers
- 17 of 100
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Create a free account- Released
- October 4, 2016, through an online charity draw that ran to October 11
- Maker
- Nike; led by Tinker Hatfield and Tiffany Beers
- How many
- 89 pairs
- Price
- No retail price; each $10 entry was a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation
- Sizes
- 7, 9, 11 and 13 (US)
- The feature
- Power laces that sense the wearer and tighten on their own (Nike's Adaptive Fit)
- Raised
- $6.75 million for Parkinson's research, according to the foundation
- First pair
- Delivered to Michael J. Fox on October 21, 2015
- Notable sale
- $52,500 for a size 11 with a card signed by Hatfield, June 2017, a record for a sneaker at the auction house that sold it
From movie magic to a motor
In Back to the Future Part II (1989), Marty McFly puts on a pair of Nikes in a make-believe 2015 and the laces pull tight by themselves. On set, crew members did that by pulling the laces through holes in the floor. Nike's first public MAG, sold for charity in 2011, copied the look and the lights but not the lacing.
The work toward real power laces had started years earlier. About a year after she joined Nike's Innovation Kitchen, Tiffany Beers, a 25-year-old plastics engineer who had come from Rubbermaid, was assigned to build a working version of the film shoe. By 2007 she had a prototype with lights that had to stay plugged into a wall. 'And then technology stalled,' she told ABC News.
After the 2011 launch, Beers recalled, Nike chief executive Mark Parker asked her in the car how long it would take to add auto-laces. In February 2014 Tinker Hatfield said publicly at a Jordan event during NBA All-Star Weekend that a self-lacing shoe would arrive in 2015. Beers said she had never been told that deadline. Hatfield said that adding urgency is what got a shoe out in 2015.
Hatfield, Beers and the engineering
Hatfield, the architect-turned-designer behind the Air Jordan III through XV, had designed the original film shoe. He said that seeing 30,000 names on fan petitions convinced him Nike had to make it real someday.
Getting there took a sensor that knew when a foot was in the shoe and a motor to tighten and loosen the laces. Beers said a plate built for the Air Jordan XX8 helped by leaving room under the foot for a battery. Once Hatfield's announcement was public, she hired the best electrical and mechanical engineer she could find, and the motor's maker, which Nike has never named, had to be persuaded to let its part be used in a way it had not designed for.
On October 21, 2015, the date Marty reaches in the film, Nike delivered a working pair to Michael J. Fox, who showed them off on social media. Asked how many existed, Hatfield said: 'I never said how many we were going to have. We made at least one.' The same system went into Nike's HyperAdapt 1.0, which went on sale on December 1, 2016, for $720.
Eighty-nine pairs and a $10 ticket
Nike announced the release on October 4, 2016. Instead of the online auctions it used in 2011, it ran a draw. Anyone in the United States or Canada, except Quebec, could buy as many $10 entries as they wanted until October 11. All of the money went to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Nike cited battery and electronics rules as the reason for limiting the draw to those two countries. A free mail-in entry was also allowed.
Sources split the 89 pairs differently. Complex reported that 84 went to the draw and the rest to auctions in Hong Kong, London and New York. ABC News reported 85 in the lottery and four at auction. The foundation said the draw and auctions in Hong Kong (October 11) and London (October 14) covered 88 pairs, with the 89th held for its New York gala on November 12. Donations in the last 12 hours of the draw were matched by an anonymous donor, and winners were announced on October 17.
The foundation reported $6.75 million raised. Parkinson's News Today reported that the London auction brought $56,800 and the Hong Kong auction around $104,000, and that Nike's total for the foundation since 2011 was more than $16 million. According to ABC News, the last pair sold for $200,000 at the foundation's gala in New York.
Autumn 2016
The draw came at the end of an eventful year. Britain had voted in June to leave the European Union, Pokemon Go had been released in July, and Rio de Janeiro had hosted the first Olympics held in South America in August.
Winners were told on October 17. Two weeks later, on November 2, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908. Back to the Future Part II had joked about a Cubs title in 2015 and was off by only a year. Six days after that, Donald Trump was elected president, and the 89th pair was sold at the foundation's gala in New York on November 12.
After the draw
On Sunday, June 11, 2017, a size 11 pair with a card signed by Hatfield sold at auction for $52,500. It set a record for a collectible sneaker at the auction house that sold it, beating that house's previous record of $32,500 by $20,000. It was not a world record: a pair of Michael Jordan's 1984 Olympic gold-medal sneakers had recently sold for $190,000. A 2011 MAG in the same sale brought $8,125.
In July 2019 a 2016 pair was part of a 100-pair sneaker sale in New York with an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000, the second-highest in the sale. During the week-long auction, 99 of the 100 pairs, the MAGs among them, went to Canadian entrepreneur Miles Nadal for $850,000 in all. He said he planned to show the shoes at his Toronto car museum. No separate price for the MAG was given.
A resale-marketplace sale in 2020 brought $50,000 for a US 11, according to Sneaker Freaker. In March 2024 another 2016 pair, US 11, went to auction in a sale of important sneakers. One secondary source reports that a Nike MAG sold for $82,000 that month, but it does not say which edition, so that figure is not counted here.
How to know one
The 2016 MAG keeps the film look: a gray high-top with lit panels and a glowing strap. What sets it apart from the 2011 pair is the power laces. Sensors detect the foot, and motors tighten or loosen the laces to fit. Nike calls the system Adaptive Fit.
Only four sizes were made: 7, 9, 11 and 13. A pair in any other size is not a 2016 MAG. Auction catalogs note that this run was limited to 89 pairs worldwide, compared with 1,500 in 2011.
Because the shoe depends on a battery and a motor, condition includes whether the electronics still work. Nike has said the MAG is not meant for heavy activity, and its archive describes the shoe as treated like an antique, not something to play sports in.
The numbers
- Release date
- October 4, 2016 (draw opened); winners announced October 17, 2016
- Retail price
- None; $10 per draw entry, all donated
- Production
- 89 pairs
- Sizes
- 7, 9, 11, 13
- Eligibility
- United States and Canada, except Quebec
- Raised
- $6.75 million (Nike's archive says $6.7 million)
Timeline
Tiffany Beers has a lit MAG prototype that has to stay plugged into a wall.
Nike unveils the non-lacing 2011 MAG; 1,500 pairs go to charity auction.
Tinker Hatfield says during NBA All-Star Weekend that a self-lacing shoe will arrive in 2015.
Nike delivers the first working self-lacing MAG to Michael J. Fox, on the date Marty reaches in the film.
Nike announces the HyperAdapt 1.0 and its self-lacing system in New York.
The 2016 Nike MAG draw opens at $10 per entry.
The draw closes; a MAG is auctioned in Hong Kong.
A MAG is auctioned in London.
Draw winners are announced.
The 89th pair is sold at the Michael J. Fox Foundation gala in New York.
Nike's HyperAdapt 1.0 goes on sale for $720.
A size 11 pair with a card signed by Hatfield sells for $52,500 at auction.
A 2016 pair carried a $50,000 to $70,000 estimate in a 100-pair sale in New York; 99 of the 100 pairs went to a single buyer.
A US 11 pair resells for $50,000.
A 2016 pair, US 11, is offered at auction in a sale of important sneakers.
The world in 2016
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
Pokemon Go is released and breaks sales and revenue records.
The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the first held in South America.
Hurricane Matthew makes landfall in Haiti as a Category 4 storm.
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.
Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 12, 2016 | $200,000 | Sold at auctionThe last pair of the 89, sold at the Michael J. Fox Foundation gala in New York, as reported by ABC News. |
| Jun 11, 2017 | $52,500 | Sold at auctionSize 11 with a card signed by Tinker Hatfield, sold at online auction. A record for a sneaker at that auction house, not a world record. |
| 2020 | $50,000 | Private saleResale-marketplace sale of a US 11. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, Nike Mag 'Back to the Future' (2016, auto-lacing) is number 17 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (15 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The draw also allowed one free mail-in entry per shoe size.
- Nike limited the draw to the US and Canada because of rules on shipping batteries and electronics.
- Tiffany Beers said an early motor prototype 'sounded like a cat getting hit with a chainsaw.'
- Beers said she learned the 2015 deadline only when Hatfield announced it in public.
- The film missed the Cubs' World Series win by one year; the real title came November 2, 2016, less than a month after the draw.
- Only four sizes were made: 7, 9, 11 and 13.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026