As a species, we may have overdone it with October 21’s rapture-like celebration. But no one can deny that the best moment of Back To The Future Day was when Nike delivered the first pair of self-lacing Mags (AS PROMISED) to one Michael J. Fox.
Fox posted a video of the shoes as well as a handwritten note from Nike’s Tinker Hatfield, who designed the concept shoes for the original film and the actual versions of the shoes for Nike. Here’s Fox on Jimmy Kimmel last night wearing the shoes and demonstrating their power-lacing abilities.
“Power” laces they’re not — I think I could lace ice skates faster — but as many have pointed out, the shoes are actually great for people who have trouble tying laces, including people who have degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s, which Fox, of course, does.
Also not awful: Marty and Doc on the show talking about hoverboards and selfies with a very special cameo I don’t want to ruin:
One more refreshing detail after yesterday’s brand shenanigans. USA Today released a special Back to the Future edition to remind everyone that they do indeed still publish an actual newspaper but they actually executed the whole thing incredibly well (for one, they waited until October 22, 2015 to put it out to make it cinematically accurate).
But the best part was that among the #brandedcontent, the back page featured an ad for Fox’s foundation, which is also getting all the money from the Nikes:
Nice that back page of special Back To The Future special @USATODAY edition has ad for @MichaelJFoxOrg #BTTF2015 pic.twitter.com/sZAEBsAdiH
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) October 22, 2015
Just reading the first line in the ad — “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything” — immediately overwhelmed any Back to the Future fatigue I might have incurred this week. Our moment of caring about the movies might be over, but that Fox will be a leading man forever.