Nike Auctions Back to the Future Shoes to Benefit Michael J. Fox Foundation

Back 4 The Future - Nike MAGThe shoes, they’re finally here… 3 years early! The 2015 self-lacing, illuminating Nike MAG shoes are here in 2011 for a limited time in a very limited number.

The Story of the Shoes
Way back when in a time called 1989, Tinker Hatfield, a designer at Nike was asked to create a unique futuristic looking shoe for Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly to wear in the second Back to the Future movie. Fast-forward to 2005 and sneaker fans started an online petition asking Nike to create an actual version of the prop shoe used in the movie.

The petition did catch the attention of Hatfield who partnered up with another Nike shoe designer, Tiffany Beers to work in relative secret for the past five years to produce a real version of the futuristic shoe. They took their project to Nike CEO, Mark Parker who greenlighted it for further development.

The project was eventually revealed to the Nike promotional department. Soon after Michael J. Fox was approached with the finished shoes and the news that the sales of the limited editions would go to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s Disease. Fox revealed the Nike MAGs on the David Letterman show on September 8.

The Back 4 the Future Campaign
The teaser video features comedian Bill Hader, Oklahoma Thunder superstar Kevin Durant, Christopher Lloyd as the time-challenged “Doc” Brown and a brief appearance by Goldie Wilson (actor Donald Fullilove) . Designer Tinker Hatfield is in there too explaining that unfortunately the shoes won’t have power laces until 2015. But when Doc finds out that it’s still only 2011 he’s off in the flux-capacitor powered Deloreon to right the space-continuum.

The Back4theFuture.com website is a full browser experience that shows a different background experience depending on the time of day you arrive. You may see ‘Doc’ Brown staring bug-eyed at the shoes if you drop by during the day or watch the cleaning staff at work at night. The site features

For 10 days starting September 9, 1500 pairs (150 each day) of the Nike MAGs are being auctioned off in a special Ebay auction. The first pair was snapped up by British rapper Tinie Tempah for $37,500 at a separate charity auction in LA. After only three days over 2 million dollars has been raised, and with Google’s Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki promising to match all bids up to $50 million things look on track for the campaign to raise significant funds for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s Disease.

If you can’t afford the shoes (and few of us can) you can still contribute to the cause at participating Nike stores by purchasing a ceramic replica or pin of the Nike MAGs.

See you in 2015, by then I’ll really need those self-tying laces.

UPDATE Sep 24, 2011: Total amount raised over the 10 days in eBay auction of 1500 shoes was $5,695,190.53. You can check out the rest of the stats over on the NiceKicks website.