Back To The Future Day: Nike Teases Launch Of Self-Lacing Sneakers

Along with the hoverboard and self-drying jacket, the self-lacing shoes which Marty McFly puts on in "Back to the Future: Part II" have become one of the most recognizable products in film history -- and on the date that McFly time-traveled to in the 1989 film, Nike could be about to make them a reality.

The man who designed the shoes for the film, legendary Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, revealed in January that his team was working hard on a pair of Nike Air MAG sneakers with Power Laces, which he hoped would launch some time in 2015. With the world celebrating Back to the Future Day on Wednesday, Oct. 21, it would seem a natural launch date for the iconic footwear.

Then, on Tuesday, to add to the hype, Nike's official Twitter account tweeted to Marty McFly himself, actor Michael J. Fox:

While this is no guarantee that Nike will finally get around to launching the futuristic sneakers, it is a pretty strong indication that it has something to share. Nike has refused to comment further on what it has planned for Back to the Future Day.

Fox made another reference to the launch of self-lacing sneakers just last week in a video with co-star Christopher Lloyd where they discussed the technology which the film predicted we would be using in 2015. When Lloyd mentions the self-lacing Nike Air Mag sneakers, Fox says: "I'm still waiting for those."

Fans of the film have been waiting for years for the release of these sneakers, with Nike filing a patent for self-tying laces as far back as 2009. In 2011, Fox unveiled a limited edition Nike Air MAG which would be auctioned on eBay to raise money for Fox's own Parkinson's research foundation, a disease that the actor suffers from.

While the 2011 version of the shoes raised millions of dollars and looked almost identical to the film version of the shoes -- featuring electro-luminescent lighting -- the one major feature it was missing was the power laces.