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Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 Introduces Adaptive Lacing Technology

03.22.16 | By
Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 Introduces Adaptive Lacing Technology

Nike took us Back to the Future with the Nike MAG, a technological limited edition that turned our nostalgia for the movie’s futuristic self-lacing system into reality. But it was more of a proof-of-concept, an extremely limited marketing move aimed at collectors rather than the general public. Nike is back with the HyperAdapt 1.0, an athletic shoe that incorporates “adaptive lacing” technology, a user controlled tightening system to give the wearer a precise and comfortable fit. If the Nike MAG was the dream, the HyperAdapt 1.0 seems to be the reality of automatic custom fit footwear that reacts to the body in motion…

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“When you step in, your heel will hit a sensor and the system will automatically tighten,” explains Tiffany Beers, Senior Innovator, NIKE, Inc., and the project’s technical lead. “Then there are two buttons on the side to tighten and loosen. You can adjust it until it’s perfect.”

Nike envisions in future iterations moving beyond their 1.0 release – operated by two buttons for tightening and loosening fit – to an automatic adaptive lacing system which controls fit according to the wearer’s movements without manual input. For example, when cutting sharply, the HyperAdapt system of the future would tighten its grip around the wearer’s foot for more secure connection to the feet, then loosen up automatically once the wearer returned to a slower and/or straightaway pace. But for now the HyperAdapt 1.0 is more akin to a technological update to the Reebok Pump of yesteryear.

A video posted by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on

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The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 is scheduled for a Holiday 2016 release in three colors, but you’ll have to be a Nike+ member to be amongst the first to cop a pair of the new shoes.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.