Back when I was a kid, people always watched Back to The Future 2 and wanted to know when hoverboards and self lacing trainers were going to be released and it looks like finally these two things might be coming to fruition.

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Hoverboards have apparently been hanging around for a while as have self lacing shoelaces – although nowhere near as cool as in the movie – but I don’t think even Marty McFly could have seen this latest innovation to the product from Nike coming. Ever the forward looking company, Nike have taken the next logical step and linked up control of these self lacing shoelaces to your smartphone. Far out man.

The shoe is called Nike Adapt and will cost $350 and be on sale at the start of February. It actually sounds pretty rad and useful and not as stupid as it sounds when you hear Eric Avar, Nike’s creative director of innovation talk about it:

We picked basketball as the first sport for Nike Adapt intentionally because of the demands that athletes put on their shoes.

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.

I mean that sounds a little bit dumb, but it is true that your shoes can come undone or get a bit tighter or something during a game as you keep playing. Having a bunch of pre saved settings on your phone that your shoe can easily mould into sounds like it during the game at a touch of a button does sound like it could be a real game changer. I can see there being loads of screw ups with it to begin with though, because there’s no way some new technology like this is just gonna work straight away is it? Look for someone’s toes or feet to get squashed in the coming weeks.

For some hoverboards, click here. Looks like they’re a reality too these days. Kinda.