Nike Air Mag shoes

UPDATED with details… Today shall long be remembered as one of the greatest moments in modern history. Today is the day Nike is announcing the manufacture and availability of Marty McFly’s shoes from Back to the Future, Part II with “power laces.”

UPDATE: Just 1,500 of these bad boys have been made, and they’re all being auctioned on eBay to benefit Michael J. Fox’s foundation for finding a cure to Parkinsons Disease. They won’t be available for general consumerism, they’re not in stores or orderable online. Nike is calling these “predecessors to the 2015 model,” so while they do light up (with a rechargeable battery, no less, that carries a 5-hour charge) they don’t have power laces. Wah! Most of the shoes on eBay are hovering around the $5,000 mark, though some have already topped $9,000 or even higher.

Remember those blue/grey shoes that Marty McFly wears in the future, when he impersonates his own son? The scenario itself is rather forgettable, but the futuristic technology that Back to the Future II showed us was permanently etched in the minds of an entire generation. For years, we’ve been waiting for our world to catch up to the movie’s world of 2015, with its flying cars, hoverboards, and self-lacing tennis shoes.

Well, as of tonight, we can check one of those items off the list. On David Letterman’s show tonight at 11:30 EST, Michael J. Fox himself is appearing to announce that the “Nike Air Mag” shoe has finally become a reality. Nike has been dropping hints for a few days now about the impending arrival of the future shoes, such as this teaser vid called “McFly’s Closet”:

Coinciding with Fox’s appearance on TV tonight is a special press event in L.A. dubbed the “It’s About Time” event. The cool cats at NiceKicks.com have posted a very cloak-and-dagger personal account of a midnight phone call from Nike, being whisked away to California in the middle of the night, put up in a hotel room, and greeted there by a mystery package containing loads of goodies based on Back to the Future, Part II, including a pair of Doc Brown’s futuristic metal glasses. They also received an iPod Shuffle that held a personal message straight from Christopher Lloyd, aka Doc Brown, where he announced, “Welcome to Los Angeles. If my calculations are correct, over the next twenty-four hours you’re about to see some serious sh*t!”

I think it’s safe to say that we will indeed.

So we know it’s happening, we just don’t know when the shoes will be available or (most importantly) how much they’ll cost. This is the big question. Will Nike do something bold and give them an aggressive price point that’s affordable by all? Or are these shoes so high-tech and high-end that only the wealthiest consumers will be able to afford them? I mean, seriously, these things could fall anywhere at all on the spectrum. Nike could price them to sell at $100 or $150, or they could treat them as an elite, save-up-for-months product in the $500-$1,000 range. Or even higher.

What do you think they’ll be? I’ll update this post later tonight once the official announcement has been made.

About a month ago, I showed you some of the greatest tennis shoes of all time. I humbly submit this high-top as a late addition to the list.

Designed and constructed by artist Phil Noto, a true gentleman among geeks, this is the Battleship Shoe. Noto made it for a custom sneaker art show at the Bold Hype Gallery in New York City. I think it goes without saying that this one’s not meant to be worn.

And should you doubt my geeky compliment before, take a look at Noto’s Tumblr blog. He posts new stuff all the time, and most of it is extremely geeky. In fact, the majority of it is depictions of superheroes. I’m particularly fond of this X-Men: First Class movie poster, made in the retro style of Saul Bass. Also in love with this Star Wars/Star Trek mashup.

His stuff is so great, it makes me wonder why I’ve never heard of him until now.

Bet you’ve never worn stilettos like these before. Frankly, I’m not even sure you could wear these.

A British artist named Finn Stone created these playful high heels, dubbing them “LEG-GO Stilettos.” And in fact, Stone swears that these art/fashion pieces are entirely wearable, since he affixed the LEGO bricks with a special glue mix. They were available to purchase at London’s Affordable Art Show for $2,600. (Stone must’ve missed the “affordable” in the title.)

He tells AOL News that he’s open to custom-making similar shoes for anyone who cares to contact him via email — and that he’ll drastically reduce the price for customers. He even says he could do it to different kinds of shoes, like tennis shoes, or make a pair that’s done entirely in one color of bricks. Stone thinks that an outside-the-box fashionista like Lady Gaga could be interested.

The LEG-GO Stilettos are actually part of a larger collection of deconstruction-with-LEGO accessories made by Stone including a teapot, a baseball cap, a bowler hat, a book, and a cowboy boot, covered in Matchbook cars.

Asteroids

An homage to the classic arcade game. [Source]

Boba Fett

Stride Rite makes a whole series of Star Wars-themed tennis shoes for kids, but there can be none cooler than the Boba Fett models. [Source]

The Dark Knight

Diversitile is a company that specializes in hand-customized apparel and shoes. These custom Dark Knight Nikes made somebody one of the coolest geeks of all time. [Source]

Iron Man

Another from Diversitile, these were put into production in support of Iron Man 2, along with a similar-but-grey pair for War Machine. Gotta love the authentic look and feel. [Source]

Keyboard

Not sure how comfy these would be, since those are real keyboard keys affixed to the outsides. But they will certainly grab attention. [Source]

Toy Story

My favorite part is the “Andy” on the sole. That’s some thoughtful detailing. [Source]

Transformers

You can’t wear these shoes, but who cares! They actually transform from shoe to robot! [Source]

Tron

They really light up, using ELastolite — the same material woven into the costumes made for Tron: Legacy.

Twitter

If you really need to celebrate your favorite microblogging service, there’s an Adidas for that. [Source] They also come in a Facebook flavor.

Xbox 360

Not terribly practical, but come on. Who doesn’t want a pair of shoes that look like game controllers? (The buttons are merely aesthetic.) [Source]

Disney believes that the look of  Tron: Legacy is the future of fashion accessorizing, and is ready to make the future today. Hence, this collection of fine jewelry and couture inspired by the movie.

Disney Consumer Products has partnered with high-end designers like Rousseau, Hayden-Harnett, Rotenier and TomTom to create what they call “luxury accessories for women,” many of which are based on the look of Tron‘s female lead, Quorra (played by actress Olivia Wilde). And when I say “high-end,” I mean it: prices start at $90 and go up to $2,600.

Disney is also launching a store in November in Los Angeles that they’re calling the “Tron Pop-Up Shop.” All of the items in these new product lines will be for sale there, along with other limited-edition merchandise based on the movie.

Click on the thumbnails below for high-res pics and details on each new product.

Back in December, we told you about a new line of Adidas gear designed for the Star Wars enthusiasts. Like some kind of wacky hot tub time machine, here we are in the future – 2010 – and some of the shoes are out. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any sign of the dope Stormtrooper or Darth Vader models listed back then, but what I do have is all new stuff.

Pictured above is the X-Wing shoe, with a multi-toned gray suede finish, and fancy orange accents to really top it off. It’s currently sold out, but at $100, it’s money.

Next up is the Stan Smith 80s Millenium Falcon shoe set, running at $110. They’re not quite as nice as the X-wings in my opinion, but these ones are available today, so pick your battles.

Want to join the dark side? Of course you do, who wouldn’t. You get the cool choke power, cool uniforms and cloaks, and even red lightsabers. Who wants blue ones anyways, those are for sissies. Show your Sith side with the Superstar Vin Death Star shoes. Once again, these puppies are temporarily sold out, but at $120, they’re not too shabby. These are probably my favorite pair, with the traditional shell-toe look up front. Good times.

Finally, for the two women who read this site, there’s the women’s Game Mid Princess Leia shoes, at $80. I get the point – it’s supposed to hark back to the sexy slave Leia suit we all love and adore – but it’s also ugly as sin. Frankly, if any girl I knew wore these, I probably would stay away. Of course, these are available for purchase today, probably because no one wants them.

You should not wonder why I chose to share this nifty gadget with you: the Sat Nav Shoes. I think that this pair of shoes is the ultimate gift for any traveler, or someone who is “directionally challenged” like me.

So how does it work? Firebox says that all the stuff that makes it cool (technology wise) is found in the left shoe. If you lift the tongue of the left shoe, you will see the control unit. What you need to do is input your starting point and your destination. No, you do not have to spell out the whole address. What you need are the postcodes.

And how will you know how to get to your destination? The shoes give you feedback in two ways. The first one is reminiscent of a video game: you have an LED DNav Bubble on the front of the shoe. It will blink and point you in the direction, and if you go the wrong way, you’ll hear it go BEEP. Obviously, the shoe also has speakers – waterproof- built in. The other way it gives feedback is through a Bluetooth headset.

Pretty cool, huh? Go get yourself a pair at Firebox for 129.95GBP. Sizes 8, 10, and 12 in stock.