It has been known for a while now that Nike is making self-lacing basketball shoes. It revealed yesterday that the self-lacing feature would be controllable using a smartphone app. Nike has officially unveiled the Adapt BB today and as promised, the shoes can indeed lace up themselves at the touch of a button in the top.
Nike says that it has developed this shoe to provide a “truly customized fit for every basketball player.” The self-lacing system is called FitAdapt and it can be adjusted both manually and through the app.
The company aims to solve a specific problem with this shoe. It points out that during a basketball game, a player’s foot can expand by almost half a size which can affect their comfort level and thus impact their performance on the court.
The shoe will thus give players the ability to quickly tighten or loosen their shoe during a game. Nike believes that this will “improve the athlete’s experience.” There are manual buttons on the Adapt BB which can be used to control the self-lacing function which will obviously be most handy when on the court as athletes don’t tend to have their smartphones around. When the shoe is worn, the custom motor inside the Adapt BB can sense the tension required by the feet and it can adjust itself so that each foot sits snug.
The app will let players input different fit settings during the game and even change the LED colors. Since it supports wireless connectivity, it will be possible for Nike to send firmware updates which can bring new features and improvements.
Nike will be selling the Adapt BB for $350 starting next month.
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