15 Facts About The Nike MAG

There’s been a number of Back To The Future trilogy tributes lately, as fans anticipate October 21, 2015, the day Doc and Marty time traveled to in Back To The Future II (this guy even created a countdown website). The iconic film series is also famous for featuring the Tinker Hatfield-designed Nike MAG, the futuristic sneaker with light-up panels and self-fastening laces. Sole Collector recently listed 15 Nike MAG facts in honor of the iconic shoe, as rumors speculate a new remake to drop with an October 21 release date. Check out the list below or read the full piece here.

1. It was the first shoe Nike ever designed from scratch for a movie.

“It was a new idea for us to design a specific product for a specific purpose in a specific movie. It was a first for us to actually be involved in anything like this.”

2. It gets its name from the word “magnetic.”

“They did have this notion of magnetic levitation technology and what could be called a “Nike MAG” that was already written into the script. That was part of how Marty McFly was going to stay adhered to the hoverboard. But also, they had some storyboards where various characters that were wearing our shoes could walk up walls or stand on ceilings or be able to do something else extraordinary that you wouldn’t normally be able to do.”

3. Nike had full control of its design and designed it from scratch.

“I figured there was very little room for negotiation or change, and it wasn’t like that at all. Once I realized that we had a real opportunity to design the product, and also come up with how it could be introduced and maybe also influence the story of the movie, that was fun. I went back with Mark, and we compared our notes and I went off and just started doing sketches and model making. We put together a little team and started prototyping it up.”

4. They made up the power lacing system.

“We did put a lighting system in it, but everything else was done with wires and some backroom editing… This one didn’t have to be capable. There was a big battery pack that Michael J. Fox had to wear in his back pocket, and it had wires that led down both pant legs… It just needed to have power to it, and we knew that he was going to have long pants on anyways. All of this power lace stuff, we had to build a few different versions of the shoes so that the power lacing system could be actuated by prop men from underneath. They were below the ground and pulling on cables that made that shoe autolace… Some of it was pretty easy actually, because we were relying on the movie industry to create reality out of fantasy. ”

5. Multiple sizes were made for Michael J. Fox and his stuntmen.

“They had to be in more than one size, because Michael J. Fox has a pretty small foot, and there were a couple of stunt people that were a bit bigger.”

6. Tinker Hatfield coined the term “Power laces!”

“It was all drawn out, and it had Marty McFly actually sitting not in the doorsill of the DeLorean, but actually on a bench putting on the shoe and saying, “Power laces!” They took that and adapted that to Marty McFly going into the future and being handed the shoes and sitting on the doorsill of the DeLorean to put them on. They were lifeless and kind of crumpled up, and then he puts them on and says, “Power laces!” I always thought I should get some writing credit for that. It seemed like I was the one who came up with that, but in the end, we were just so thrilled to be involved in the process to the degree that we were. To go and actually see it at the theater was amazing.”

7. It’s design was Hatfield’s actual vision of sneakers of the future.

“I thought electronics were going to play a pretty big role in the future, and I don’t think those were very difficult predictions to make. It was just like, ‘Yeah, probably shoes will magically be put together in some other way.’ So we glued the Swoosh on so you didn’t see any stitching, all the while thinking that there might be some cool way to do that in the future.”

8. Nike has designed other sneakers for movies, but the MAG remains its most popular one.

“We’ve designed other movie products since that original Back To The Future II movie, like the Bat boots that we did for Batman (1989).”

9. Beers debuted the first MAG remake at a Nike Campus event.

“Tiffany and I went to an on-Nike campus event where you’re supposed to wear your coolest sneakers. It was in the Tiger Woods Center, and I talked Tiffany into wearing them, even though I think she really wanted to wear them but was scared that she’d get in trouble. I just said, ‘Ah, why don’t you wear them?’ So she wore them to the event, and I wore a different pair of sneakers, but I told her, ‘OK, the rule is this: If someone asks you about these, which they will, your official response is ‘No comment.’”

10. Hatfield wanted to make the MAG remake since 2005.

“I was just having a one-on-one with Tinker, and I was new in the group. I was chatting with him about how the company works, and so on and so forth, and shortly after that he approached me and said ‘Let’s remake this Back to the Future shoe. There’re petitions and things, and people want this shoe.’” – Tiffany Beers

11. The MAG remake was originally meant for the 20th anniversary of the movie.

12. To keep the return of the MAG a secret, they tested the shoe with Nike employees. 

“We tried to set up a formal Nike weartest, but then too many people would know about it. So, we had to go rogue on that too, and found a series of weartesters. The original shoe was a size 7… we found several folks at the factory that were size 7s… they could wear them while they were at work, and there wouldn’t be too many questions asked.” – Tiffany Beers

13. They went through hundreds of hours of inspection.

14. British rapper Tinie Tempah made the highest bid for a MAG — $37,500 USD in 2011.

15. The Nike MAG remakes were auctioned off in 10 days in 2011 and made $4.7 million USD.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki matched the auction totals, creating a grand total of $9.4 million in donations for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.