The first thing that came to mind when I saw the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 being revealed was “what does it sound like?” Well, thankfully Cristiano Ronaldo was around to answer that question for me.
Wow! Thanks @Nike for letting me be the first athlete trying the new HyperAdapt 1.0 #nike2016 #nikeinnovation pic.twitter.com/RVWZgJjkqf
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) March 16, 2016
Huh, that sounds awfully familiar. Even the light reminds me of something I saw a few months ago. Hey, wait a minute…
Michael J. Fox models the first self-lacing @Nike Mag pic.twitter.com/bgPWM5CKBE
— michaeljfox.org (@MichaelJFoxOrg) October 21, 2015
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the HyperAdapt and the Nike Mag have a lot in common. Anybody that is fortunate rich enough to own a pair of both this year will probably see that the machinations of the shoe are one and the same. The difference is that while the Mag will feel antiquated – but still cool in a retro sort of way – the HyperAdapt will look and feel what we thought 2015 and 2016 would look and feel like in 1989 when we saw Back To The Future Part 2 for the first time. The future really is here now.
But another thought also crossed my mind when I saw the HyperAdapt. I thought about somebody very close to me who struggles to tie their shoes. I thought about Matthew Waltzer, the inspiration for the Nike LeBron Soldier 8 FlyEase, our 2015 Sneaker of the Year winner. I thought about the millions of people out there who suffer from life-altering ailments that prevent them from doing the simple things in life that we take for granted like tying shoes. Maybe they don’t need the zipper collar of the FlyEase to put on a pair of shoes but they need assistance in tying them. The HyperAdapt is another tool that has implications that reaches far beyond our needs as athletes or as sneakerheads. It can changes lives. So debuting it on a grand stage like today was very important.
There are people who like to bemoan things like the Nike Innovation Summit. They don’t understand what the deal is and just want to see new shoes that look like old shoes. Well, this show isn’t for them; it’s for the rest of the world to see that the swoosh are doing things that can help people. Yes, Nike is a business first and foremost, but maybe somebody watching at home sees that there is hope for those in their lives that have disabilities or maybe they become inspired to do take the HyperAdapat and make it better. It’s not always about the product but the spark that results from seeing that product. That’s the power of the Nike platform that honestly no other brand in the world has. I don’t need to be there to know that it has already changed our lives even though Nike isn’t dropping the shoes until later this year.
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