Nike has announced the Adapt BB, a low-cut basketball shoe that laces itself and adjusts its fit in accordance with settings entered into a smartphone app, itself called Nike Adapt. Each shoe contains a small motor and a tension-adjusting gear that can tighten or loosen the upper either on command or on a schedule. Buttons on the side of the shoe allow for manual adjustments.
Firmware updates will refine the system over time and open the way to new digital services. In other words, the shoes themselves are updatable. Every 10 to 14 days, the shoes need charging on a pad included with the purchase.
Nike invited several NBA players, notably Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, to its Oregon headquarters to test the shoes in real basketball conditions. Tatum worn them in a match against a Toronto team. The public release date of Feb. 17 will coincide with the NBA's All Star Game.
The Adapt BB is in fact Nike's second shoe with “power lacing,” after the HyperAdapt 1.0 of 2016. It will cost $350 at retail and go on sale, with as-yet unreleased FitAdapt functions, on Feb. 17. The HyperAdapt was a high-cut shoe that went on sale three years ago at double the price, backed by advertising that linked it to the futuristic self-lacing shoe worn by Michael J. Fox in the film “Back to the Future.” The famous movie came out 30 years ago.
In time, Nike plans to add data tracking and user personalization to the Adapt platform and expand it into non-basketball products. The present model is for men, but women's and children's styles are in the pipeline.
