This post has been updated.
Legions of movie buffs and sneakerheads have been waiting anxiously to get themselves a real pair of Nike’s self-lacing Mag sneakers, which first appeared on the feet of Marty McFly in 1989’s Back to the Future Part II.
But it’s entirely fitting that the person to get the first pair is none other than Michael J. Fox, the actor who played McFly. Nike confirmed today that it has actually created the sneakers—”power laces” and all—and the Michael J. Fox Foundation tweeted an image of Fox, who is now 54, wearing his brand-new sneakers. It later tweeted a video of the self-lacing mechanism in action.
Earlier, Fox also tweeted an image of a hand-written letter from famed Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, who created the Mag. “As the first, most celebrated wearer of the Nike Air Mag, we wanted you to be the first to receive a living pair,” the letter said.
Nike will auction off other pairs of the futuristic sneakers, the letter suggests, with proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.
Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991, a year after the final installment of Back to the Future. It wasn’t until 1998 that he made his diagnosis public, creating his foundation for Parkinson’s research just two years later.
Nike has released the Mags before, auctioning 1,500 pairs over 10 days in 2011 and raising $9.4 million that it donated to Fox’s foundation.
Those auctions were for Mags that didn’t automatically lace. Auctions for fully self-lacing Mags, just like those featured in Back to the Future Part II, should fetch even more money for Fox’s cause.