Nick DePaula:<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nTinker Hatfield is no stranger to innovation.<\/p>\n
Over the past three decades, the icon of design not only dreamt up some of the athletic industry’s most storied sneakers from scratch, he’s also pioneered modern chapters for footwear, like the cross training category itself, the notion of exposing Nike’s “Air” cushioning technology, and of course, the Jumpman-donning, bar-setting Air Jordan series.<\/p>\n
During his early time with the brand, a foundational project came to life — only fictionally — that has always drawn fans to both his work and the mystique around his at-times limitless imagination. It was the Nike Mag from 1989’s\u00a0Back To The Future II<\/em>, often simply dubbed the “Marty McFly shoe,” that was so ahead of its time (seriously…by three decades), that by the time the real 2015 came around, Nike actually struggled for years to create it.<\/p>\nFast forward to 2019, and the brand has yet another new innovation in store. The HyperAdapt BB, a performance-fueled follow-up to the auto-lacing HyperAdapt 1.0 from 2016. Aiming to offer up an on-demand fit for hoops, and bringing to life Hatfield’s vision for adaptive technology, the sneaker syncs up to the unique slopes and contours of the wearer’s foot, all powered by an app system, and playable at the game’s highest level.<\/p>\n
Last month, we caught up with Nike’s VP of Design and Special Projects, to hear all about how the newest step in performance design came to be. Read ahead for our in-depth interview with Tinker Hatfield, as he details the brand’s history in auto-lacing, where the concept may be headed over time, and the new HyperAdapt BB, its latest innovation for the future.<\/p>\n