New Zealand industrial designer Vimal Patel has engineered a self-lacing shoe. Popularized in “Back to the Future II,” Patel's shoe is instead made of Legos, which makes it significantly more affordable — the hypothetical shoes in the movie are now made by Nike and cost $720 per pair.
His passion for Legos and unwillingness to pay top dollar for a tennis shoe inspired his creation, which requires only a Dremel, hot glue gun, and pair of tennis shoes. While Patel's shoes aren’t exactly shiny and new, they are self-lacing, which is more than most people can say about their shoes.
The shoes use a similar technique, though — tightening a set of laces that have been pre-tied across the top of the foot to prevent the shoes from slipping off while they’re being worn. Though Patel's and Nike's shoes don’t exactly tie themselves, they cannot come untied while wearing them, earning them the title of “self-lacing.”
Watch them in action:
The shoes work by rotating a rod so that the excess shoelace wraps around it on both sides, tightening the laces over the top.
“To build on the shoe, I used a Dremel and a hot glue gun to fix a few Lego connection points. From there, it was straightforward to experiment with different designs and test their functionality. It works reasonably well, but I'm sure it can be done much better with a bit of effort,” Patel said.
The rare sneakers featured in “Back to the Future II”were selling on eBay for $200,000 when Nike released the HyperAdapt 1.0 in November 2016 at a price point of $720. Yet to release an affordable alternative, Nike may be out of luck — Patel's design presents a cheaper, if slightly clunkier, option for die-hard fans.
Components used in Patel's self-lacing shoe hack.
A detailed close-up of the Lego setup.
Image Source: Vimal Patel
Advertisement
Learn more about Electronic Products Magazine
