The NIKE MAG shoe, based on the original pair worn in "Back to the Future" by Marty McFly in the year 2015, are up for auction in Los Angeles.
Ah, the future. Jet packs, pills that contain entire meals and sneakers that lace themselves up. Perchance to dream, right?
Well, if you’re interested in owning a pair of what will be a limited edition set of Nike Mag sneakers, famously based on Michael J. Fox’s character of Marty McFly from Back to the Future, then your luck is very much in.
1,500 pairs will be made and put up for auction on eBay, with the proceeds given to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research (who, impressively, will double the donations). Rather excitedly, they’ll be exact replicas of the ones worn in the movie on a visit to the year 2015 (that took place in Back to the Future Part 2). We know: that’s just around the corner! And mere hours after the auction began, the highest bid was already $8,200.
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Nike’s press release certainly whet NewsFeed’s appetite. “The Nike Mag is no longer ‘the greatest shoe never made’. The mythical shoe that captured the imagination of audiences is being released.”
But there’s only so long we can write without begging the question that’s on everyone’s lips: will they lace themselves? The answer, unfortunately, is no. But it’s a victory nonetheless for sneakerheads, who’ve long badgered the company to release the shoes. It’s believed that between eight to ten pairs were used in the film, but only a certain number are still in Nike’s possession, which means that, somehow, collectors got their hands on some of them. And now you can, too.
(PHOTOS: The Multitalented Michael J. Fox)
The sneaker was thankfully redesigned for day-to-day use, compared to the frankly laughable way Fox had to wear a battery pack with wires running down his pants to light up the shoe, as that was the best technology available back then.
As for Fox, he’s clearly delighted about the development. In a statement, he said, “The project is exciting to me because it brings together three very passionate audiences: the Parkinson’s community, sneakerheads and Back to the Future fans. With their support we can accelerate our objective of finding a cure for Parkinson’s.”
The only lingering issue on our minds is the following: can hover boards please be next? (via VH1)
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Glen Levy is an Executive Producer at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @glenjl. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.