What will they think of next? Nike has invented an auto-lacing sneaker called the HypertAdapt BB, a concept that has been more than 30 years in the making. The first to wear the shoe will be Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who will debut it in the Celtics' game against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night:
“Being the first person to wear it is a great opportunity,” Tatum said, according to Nick DePaula of ESPN. “I didn't know what to expect. Hearing about a shoe with all this technology and no laces, I didn't know what it was going to look like. It really surprised me. It looked a lot better than I thought it would, and it felt great — that was most important.”
Nike VP of design and special products Tinker Hatfield first received a call about the idea when he was just a designer in 1989, and here we are, three decades later, and the shoe is about to hit the market:
“The idea was adaptability from the very beginning,” Hatfield said. “The [original] notion of a shoe that recognizes you and turns on, then adapts itself to you, is not very different than what we're looking at right now.”
Given that sneakers are more popular among basketball players than any other athletes, Nike felt it was only right to let NBA players try out the shoes first:
“We picked basketball as the first sport for Nike Adapt intentionally because of the demands that athletes put on their shoes,” said Eric Avar, Nike's VP creative director of innovation (via Caitlyn Holroyd of theScore). “During a normal basketball game, the athlete's foot changes and the ability to quickly change your fit by loosening your shoe to increase blood flow and then tighten again for performance is a key element that we believe will improve the athlete's experience.”
Be sure to look out for the revolutionary new kicks on the feet of Jayson Tatum on Wednesday night.
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