Nike's new Go FlyEase hands-free sneaker snaps around your foot
The Nike shoe first will be available by invitation only, then to broader consumers.
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The Nike Go FlyEase shoe is the company's first hands-free sneaker.
Nike is making a new hinged sneaker model, created so wearers can step into it without using their hands.
The Nike Go FlyEase shoe, revealed on Monday, is part of the company's FlyEase line. The line lets wearers use one or no hands to put on a pair of shoes, whether that person has special needs, is simply in a hurry or has their hands full.
A video posted by the company shows how a hinge built into the laceless shoe allows it to bend into an open position so the wearer can step in. The wearer then puts down their heel to close the shoe securely. To remove the shoe, the wearer presses on the heel with their opposite foot.
"Usually I spend so much time to get in my shoes," Italian Paralympic gold medal fencer Bebe Vio said in a statement. "With the Nike Go FlyEase, I just need to put my feet in and jump on it. The shoes are a new kind of technology, not only for adaptive athletes but for everyone's real life."
A reviewer for Fast Company notes that wearers won't feel the hinge, which is hidden under the shoe's footbed, and that a tensioner band holds the hinge in place while the shoe's being worn.
Photos shared by Nike show three color choices -- a mostly all black shoe with a dark blue accent; a shoe made in stripes of black, purple, orange, gray and blue; and a shoe in light green, blue, pink and white.
The shoes will sell for $120 (about £88, AU$157). Beginning Feb. 15, "select Nike members" in North America, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will be invited to buy them, Business Insider reports, and eventually the shoe will be more broadly available.