• Sneaker Activism Pays Off…Well Almost.

    Posted on August 19th, 2008 by and currently 5 commenting.

    Al Cabino is just a regular guy who loves sneakers. That’s right sneakers. He also loves media, pizza and movies. But “sneaker activism” (a phrase he coined) is Al’s passion. A long-time contributor to Sneaker Freaker, Al teamed up with some Swiss friends to create a pair of sneakers made out of the world’s finest Swiss chocolate. He can quickly rattle off his top 10 favorite sneakers (are you really a fan of something if you can’t turn it into a top 10 list?). And he’s currently working on a book about sneaker culture.

    But what got Al attention, what led him to call himself an “internationally famous sneakerographer”, was his 2005 petition to get Nike to actually produce the sneaker that Marty McFly wore in the movie “Back to the Future II”. Remember those? The ones with the power laces that lit up – and that Marty was wearing while riding his hoverboard through Hill Valley’s town square in 2015.

    Within 10 days of launching in late 2005, Operation McFly had newspaper & blog coverage from over 30 countries. As of May the following year, it had 17,000 signatures in 50 countries. There was also a clever YouTube commercial, a blog – OperationMcFly.blogspot.com (since discontinued), and a website – McFly2015.com (still up and running).

    So what led Cabino to advocate for this particular shoe. Well as he saw it, this sneaker is the “Holy Grail of movie sneakers”. Created just for the 1989 film, they were never worn again. Supposedly there was a sneaker legend that Nike would come out with the shoe in 2015 but Cabino decided that wasn’t soon enough.

    Time warp ahead… Summer 2008.

    April: Nike announces that it is going to release the “Hyperdunks” shoe – a lightweight 13-ounce shoe in its basketball line, endorsed by mega star Kobe Bryant. Designed by Nike creative director, Eric Avar, the Hyperdunk is one of the lightest and most innovative basketball shoes ever produced by Nike. Kobe wears the first pair on April 10th and shows them off by jumping over, yes that’s right – jumping over, a moving Aston Martin (you can see it on YouTube).

    June: Rumors start to trickle in that Nike will produce a special colorway – the McFly Hyperdunk, also known as the Hyperdunk 2015.

    July – They’re true! Nike produces only 350 pairs of the special Hyperdunk, to be sold only at select Nike retailers in late July. Now they’re not an exact replica of the shoe – just inspired by the movie version. With the same iconic coloring – that matte grey & white, and a grey & teal speckled midsole. But Hyperdunk 2015 does feature a bunch of feature call outs to the film sure to please the movie’s fans.

    The shoes first made their appearance in Santa Monica. And yes the line started over 24 hours before. Kobe even made a special appearance – in a BTF Delorean no less – and signed a few pairs.

    In NY a few days later, the line at Nike House of Hoops started well before the shoes arrived. Did these people really love sneakers & the movie that much? Sort of. Many of them happily admitted it was about flipping the sneakers on eBay: retail price was around ~$200 but they were quickly selling for over $1,000. (you can get a pair on eBay now for a mere $890).

    So score 1 for the fans. Well, almost.

    Why almost?

    Because the Nike Hyperdunks don’t have power laces of course. For that I guess we’ll have to wait another decade or so.

  • http://ubereye.wordpress.com Bill Gammell

    I was only aware of bits and pieces of this story so thanks for putting it all together. It’s very interesting to see a great example of tribes and social media at work. Now let’s move on to the hover boards!

  • http://www.brainsonfire.com Justine

    I must admit Bill it took a while to piece together what I did find! Nike kept the whole thing very mysterious – and outside the shoe fan websites, there is very little info. For example I was not able to find out exactly what retailers outside of Santa Monica and NY actually got some of the 350 pairs to sell. Or why exactly the web page is still active.

    I did find one blog site though that challenged its readers to contribute workable solutions for making power laces!

  • http://www.ivey-mccoig.blogspot.com Billy

    What can I say, Dr. Foo? That’s a really, really much more than adequate post!

  • http://wgho Harley Quinn

    Wow I have found a way of being more obsessed with the movie!

  • harrymarrywhenyou

    good afternoon fellas. I’m actually into shoes and I have been searching as far as something that exact model. The prices due to the fact that the boots were about 350 pounds everwhere. But finally I base this location selling them for the benefit of half price. I in reality love those prada sneakers. I will definetly order them. what can you tell me about these?