So here we are 7 years in to the future from the future in Back to the Future II. Way back in 1989, Nike were tasked with creating something futuristic for the film. The now world famous designer Tinker Hatfield was asked to create a sneaker for the second part of this family favourite trilogy. As part of the film was set in the future (2015), this sneaker had to include some unusual features, the final design included light-up panels in the heel and “power laces.” These sneakers and the scene when Marty McFly first puts them on is permanently welded into my minds eye, mainly because of how futuristic they really did look and perform. I honestly think they hold up as design that many would wear in our present, although maybe they are a little on the high side of high tops!

Fast forward (or is that rewind…) to 2011 and after many hours of work by Tinker and his team, including Tiffany Beers – the public were finally treated to a release of the “Air Mag” but sadly now “power laces.” 1510 pairs were produced and auctioned off to raise money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation, 1500 on eBay and a further 10 at exclusive Nike auctions around the globe. They managed to raise $4.7 million, which was then doubled by Google Co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki, making a total of $9.4 million!

When we finally got to October 2015, spookily matching the timeline of the film – Nike presented Michael J. Fox with a pair of Air Mag’s that had E.A.R.L. (Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing) – “POWER LACES!” The following year Nike once again used the “Air Mag” as a promotional fundraising tool for The Michael J. Fox Foundation, even though only 89 pairs (a nod to 1989 – the year of the films release?), they proved to be even more lucrative than the original 2011 model. This time round through a $10 ticket raffle, Nike managed to raise a further $6.75 million.

The prices of these both when they were released and on StockX are crazy but there are plenty of replicas out there, these are ideal for the Movie buffs and Cosplayers among us who can’t afford the real thing or even if you did own a pair and wanted to actually wear them. The quality and details of these vary wildly, from some official replicas produced by