From Back to the Future to present day: McFly’s Nike shoes are here

When Marty McFly slipped on his self-lacing Nike Mag shoes in the Back to the Future franchise, it was a glorious time to be alive, with hoverboards and flying cars the preferred form of transport, and every home boasting a personal nuclear reactor.

October 21, 2015 - the date in the distant future that Marty ended up in - came and went, with no one the richer in terms of hoverboards or cars.

Sans levitating forms of transportation, however, one invention seems to be coming our way - the self-lacing shoes that were part of what defined Michael J. Fox’s cult character’s coolness. McFly was a hipster before people even knew what the word hipster was.

To celebrate Back to the Future day, American apparel giant Nike sent Fox a letter and a custom pair of the Mag shoes - the former of which he tweeted.

In it, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield wrote “Almost 30 years ago, we embarked on a journey to create a glimpse into the future. As the first, most celebrated wearer of the Nike Air MAG, we wanted you to be the first to receive a living pair.”

The company first announced that it was making the iconic footwear last year.

A video of the 54-year-old actor trying on the first pair of the Back to the Future-inspired sneakers was shared on YouTube on Wednesday afternoon by the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson’s Research.

Hatfield has refused to set a date for the release of the futuristic footwear, but had said that we still have “11 and two-thirds months left in 2015”, according to Nice Kicks, hinting at the possibility of a 2016 release.

The Back to the Future trilogy started in 1985, and featured Fox’s character as he unwittingly gets sent back in time, and has to undue the damage caused by his presence there with the help of Christopher Lloyd’s Dr. Emmet “Doc” Brown.

The films are beloved, and have become a staple of American pop-culture.