So, Nike released their first generation of the Nike Air Mags that were featured in the film Back to the Future II (1989) and, after reading an interview with Bob Gale, I went hunting for concept art.
Once you actually compare the final product with the designs, it kind of falls flat.
While the shoes are incredibly authentic reproductions of the movie shoes, it would have been nice if they'd designed them as Tinker had originally drawn, with accents and much bolder styling. Maybe next year. Still hyper-cool though.
The Nike "Air Mags," (or McFlys) named after the logo on the back, were originally supposed to be "Slamball Shoes." There was a scene were Marty plays a futuristic game of racquetball called Slamball, but it was cut because of the cost of building a huge racquetball court.
Sneaker News had a post on the eBay sale of the original prop Michael J. Fox wore in the film. That seller had a photocopy of the original design drawing by Nike's legendary shoe designer Tinker Hatfield (the designer of all of the Air Jordans).
Nike had some concept art as well, but it's not very clear.
Were these shoes supposed to have wheels? Maybe they could sue the "Heelies?"
Here we see Marty hanging upside down in his magnetic shoes.
Nike announced that 1500 pairs of these shoes will be auctioned on eBay, nikemag.eBay.com, for a starting bid of $3,300 with all net proceeds going directly to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The auction ends on September 18 and 150 pairs will be posted on eBay per day for 10 days.
"We wanted to translate the excitement people have for the 'greatest shoe never made' and for the Back to the Future into positive action,” said Mark Parker, CEO of Nike. "But the long term objective is to raise awareness so the Foundation can achieve their goal of eradicating Parkinson’s disease."
Some of the illustrators on the original film were David Jonas and Martin A. Kline.
Would you wear a pair of these amazing shoes?
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