IS THIS THE FUTURE OF FOOTBALL BOOTS?

Nike have applied for a patent on a new type of shoe which automatically laces itself up.

An innovative feature which really benefits the wearer of football boots is the holy grail of football boot manufacturers.

Major innovations like the screw-in stud, predator technology or, more recently considerable weight reduction don’t come along very often. So when we were told about a new patent that Nike have filed, it got us wondering, what if?

Nike’s Automatic Lace System

The application shows a shoe containing small motors the laces tight when the wearer to pull a button . Also, a charging station shown that the batteries can be recharged in the shoes .

Rather than using a traditional set of shoe laces, this futuristic footwear uses a series of flatter straps (so they can be retracted into the shoe seamlessly). For a pair of football boots, we could see the benefit of having a flatter, wider striking surface, in addition to the snug fit.

Much of the technology seems to be based around what Nike are calling the ‘Ankle Cinching System’, which seems to us to be the Ultimate Heel Counter!

This system pulls the back of the boot as close as possible to the Achilles’ Tendon and heel area, locking the foot in place – a real strikers’ dream!

However, whilst we love the thought of such a mechanism being implemented on our favourite football boots, there would be some definite drawbacks.

For example, the weight of the added motors would probably unbalance the shoe in a number of ways that would make them unsuitable for performance footwear.

Additionally, the fact that the shoes have enough voltage in them to warrant a charging station probably suggests that they wouldn’t be too safe to wear in a semi-contact sport (that’s traditionally played in the winter!) like football!

However, these designs are often concepts that never make it to retail, and are instead ‘whittled down’ to make the technology more functional (like the FlyWire on the Superfly II.) – so maybe by the time the T90 Laser V hits our shelves, it’ll have an auto-adjusting heel counter!

If you want to look at these plans in detail, check out the full patent application here: Full Patent

What do you think to this technology – pipe-dream or really useful?

Article by Felipe. View all posts by Felipe.

Updated: 08/02/12


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fido

i dont see anything wrong with tying your laces by hand dont need no batteries or motor.

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Rating: +37 (from 37 votes)
Splinter09

Interesting new concept, but I’m not sure how this can be implemented into football boots. It will sure be a nice feature for casual footwear but as mentioned the auto lacing and its “engines” will increase the overall weight of a football boot.

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harry

back to the future 2 the boots remind me of

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Colin

Just because they patent it, doesnt mean theyll use it. Nike and Adidas both probably try to patent or copyright hundreds to thousands of things every year, and only a small fraction of those make it to stores

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joo

stupid concept, which is only gonna make the boot more expensive

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Fifinho

yeah i think Splinter09′s got it spot on. For casual shoes, go ahead if you wanna pay the extra price for the tech but i don’t think it will really hit big with football boots

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Ali

this is crazy:)

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Reg

How I’d love to turn up at the weekend, get my boots out in the changing room and then….. bzzzz, my boots are tied and ready to go…. Kudos dudes…

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scottie_k

The CAD is definitely the McFlys !

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andy

They look like basketball shoes to me.

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BiyiAdetunji

whats wrong with lacing up your boots by hand + what if your playing on wet muddy surfaces, and/or want to clean your boots?

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Tito993

OH MY.

are you serious nike? electonics plus wet surfaces here in madrid equals DISASTER! plus that massive heel counter type thing looks like it would constrict movement. Seems lik another one of nikes “patented” marketing stupidities meant to suck cash outta players, and parents alike. Compare the first low profile MV2 and apply the iumage above, EW. Seriously nike, whats next? boots thatll move and play for you? all you gotta do is upload a video of CR7 and off you go, sit back and enjoy the ride. Oh wait, they just created an island and transformed themselves into a jet to fly you to said island. Maybe kits that change color and transform into the opponents kit so that they miss pass to you. Patent that!

It makes me smile that iin 2055 when nike has these flying boots there will still be a handful of players wearing the original copa mundials. Terrific.

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m16u31

this is a martin mcfly shoe

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/07/07/mcfly-shoes.jpg

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farid

i think technology is coming too much into shoes now. besides you can tie your laces by hand? only lazy people would like this lol and i dont this you could change the laces on this anyway?

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higz

This would work well in basketball shoes because u only play basketball in dry conditions, but personally for football it would suck.
Im a defender and like to slidetackle in wet conditions, if i did that with these shoes id get electrocuted.

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mshutt

Similar technologies have been used by the snowboarding industry for tying snowboard boots. Its called “Boa”

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channo

just like harry, scottie_k, and m16u31, this design take me back straight to those good old “back to the future” movie!

this could happen though…
20 years ago, people might laugh about powerpulse or mukaiten panel -but look how those gimmicks stole our hearts now.
future people are crazy just as people from the past would think that WE’RE crazy

i don’t think that these kind of technologies could be applied to performance shoes any time soon though… the mechanical system would probably break after a couple of bone crunching tackles and nasty slam dunks xP

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Sion

I have a question but it dosen’t relate to this article, I did do the ask boot geeks section but I haven’t had a reply and it’s been like a year and a half, what boots did Jay Jay Okocha wear he seemed to change his boots quite often is there a brand he favoured here are some photos if anyone can help please.

http://www.birminghammail.net/birmingham-videos-pictures/birmingham-picture-galleries/2008/02/25/west-bromwich-albion-v-hull-97319-20522008/i2/

http://www.goodlife.com.ng/glmagsports.php?glmagsports=read&id=24

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://images.football.co.uk/Dynamic/News/400×400/1189888635_spt_ai_hullvstoke_16.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.football.co.uk/hull_city/okocha_starts_to_impress_252548.shtml&usg=__fj3eRGJI_NuRezSUnNfkJamk5MQ=&h=400&w=400&sz=40&hl=en&start=15&zoom=1&tbnid=ksundYfd-gdJZM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dokocha%2Bhull%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D583%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C342&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=424&vpy=215&dur=1120&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=139&ty=83&ei=O4t9TMKtBoOBlAeA14HsCw&oei=zYp9TIbXNYGBlAeVqejsCw&esq=9&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:15&biw=1024&bih=583

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mark

uh guys, this isn’t even remotely designed for football boots or any other performance shoes.

It’s the concept from the Nike Air Mag from Back to the Future Part 2. Even it was feasible, it would never be implemented into a Nike performance shoe since it’s counter-intuitive!

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bob

fail.

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kevin

terrible

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joe_reach

looks like a baskeball shoe to me

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bruce

hi-tops..I knew it was the Marty McFly shoes…back to the future

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Terri

Clearly the shoe would be adapted if it were used on a football boot. Just how much it could be adapted would be down to designers, but I think something along these lines will be introduced at some stage.

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callum

has any one got any news on the total 90 laser v ? any pics or anything ?

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87yoda

this concept isnt new at all…thats a patent from the marty mcfly shoe from back to the future, nike has been working on this shoe for the past 5 years the pics are all over the web…and never gonna happen with football boots

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Connor Wallace

first to everyone who referenced back to the future: right on

so i dont think this is too applicable to footie players, at least not in the near future. something ive noticed that i think will eventually work itsway into boot design are the toe shoes which i believe are for hiking at the moment but i see no reason they couldnt put some leather on top and work out a sole plate and make a totally new kind of boot.

these are the toeshoes:http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_footwear.cfm

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Dbailey18

I’m not seeing why this wouldn’t work with a few modifications. They could instead of having a motor, have an external key, that works like a power drill for loosening and tightening, that tightens the straps from the bottom of the boot very similar to the flywire tech now. removing the motor would keep the weight of and the boots could probably weight about the same as predators or T90s. The straps versus laces thing has been around for a while with snowboarding boots and DC has this thing called the “BOA” system which has a wire where laces would normally go and a crank at the top of the boot to tighten them.

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Poler

Hah I’ve been thinking the same about the toe shoes

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