Nike - The McFly sneaker (2007)

Nike help us. We can't deal with these annoying shoelaces anymore. Dangit. Make them McFly shoes! That's the message of this ad which encourages y'all to sign the petition. When I asked the submitter the who and why, he says that the commercial was created by award-winning New York film editor Robert Ryang, and that it's all done to get Nike to make the futuristic shoes in Back to the future 2.
Uh-huh. See ad (quicktime) inside, y'all.

Al Cabino, who submitted this, has a real big thing for sneakers. He's made things like chocolate sneakers happen, so why not the McFly?

P.S. Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog posted 5 questions for Al Cabino

Client: Nike

Adland® is supported by your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi coffee.
Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
comment_node_story
Files must be less than 1 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg gif png wav avi mpeg mpg mov rm flv wmv 3gp mp4 m4v.
TDD's picture

The "McFly sneakers" were created by the movie prop department (most likely) and Nike got its name on the sneakers. Nike never made the sneakers, and had nothing to do with the design. Nike just wanted the sneakers to say, "Nike" and appear in the film. The "McFly sneakers" were nothing more than a movie prop, or a special effect, in a movie that Nike used for product name placement.

Are you starting to get it now?

AnonymousCoward's picture

You're welcome!

(Don't forget to watch Back to the Future 2!)

areia's picture

This post and the comments is hilarious. Thanks all.

AnonymousCoward's picture

"Online petitions may or may not persuade companies to release the desired products, but it does do one important thing. It tells us how many people want the products released. "

AnonymousCoward's picture

The McFlys are considered by sneaker geeks as the Holy Grail of movie sneakers. You’ve got Eddie Murphy’s Adidas in Beverly Hills Cop. You can buy them. You can buy the Nike Cortez that Forrest Gump wore. You can get the Kill Bill Tigers that Uma Thurman wore. You can get Rocky’s Chuck Taylors when he runs up the stairs. If you look at movie sneakers, the McFlys are the only ones that were created for the film and never worn beyond the silver screen.

AnonymousCoward's picture

The futuristic shoes are Nikes. If you watch Back to the Future 2, the scene with the futuristic sneakers is at the beginning of the film, if you watch the scene, you’ll want those sneakers too.

AnonymousCoward's picture

The McFlys are considered by sneaker geeks as the Holy Grail of movie sneakers. Nike designed and made the futuristic sneakers. The futuristic sneakers are in the scene that takes place in the year 2015 (the movie came out in 1989 so there was no point of releasing them way ahead of their time). Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox) wears them, walks in them, runs in them, etc. Go watch Back to the future 2. There’s a sneaker legend that says in 2015 Nike will come out with them. This I cannot confirm to you, but someone supposedly back in 1989 wrote a letter to Nike, and the answer came from [Nike founder] Phil Knight: “You have to be patient.”

TDD's picture

The sneakers in the movie are not, and never have been, real. They were made out of what looks to be some sort of foam as a prop for the movie. The automatic lace up in the film was done through special effects. After the movie was released, a lot of people thought the sneakers were real and wanted to buy a pair. Nike could have responded to the demand then by producing some version of the sneakers. Why didn't they? Maybe because it was just a movie....

AnonymousCoward's picture

The McFlys are considered by sneaker geeks as the Holy Grail of movie sneakers.

AnonymousCoward's picture

Dude, you're hilarious!

Nike designed and made the futuristic sneakers.

TDD's picture

They're just an old movie prop

AnonymousCoward's picture

Dude, you're hilarious!

FYI, Nike designed and made the futuristic sneakers.

TDD's picture

Online petitions don't work. Many of us already know that.

AnonymousCoward's picture

LMAO!

TDD's picture

I think you need a lesson in Product Placement 101

AnonymousCoward's picture

Dude, you're hilarious!

TDD's picture

Yes.

Then there is the issue of copyright. Universal Studios owns the rights to the film, and one just can't start manufacturing and selling "McFlys" without their permission.

AnonymousCoward's picture

Is that your final answer?

TDD's picture

...so why not the McFly?

Answer: I have an idea for Nike

AnonymousCoward's picture

The website says:

A TOTALLY NEW OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS COMING SOON IN 2007, IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE NEWS AND UPDATES, SEND AN EMAIL TO: CABINO@GMAIL.COM

AnonymousCoward's picture

The project is not canceled.

brandonbarr's picture

The petition is canceled, and the blog is down. Oh well. That was fun while it lasted.

TDD's picture

Claiming online petitions are the reason Hasbro "brought back" My Little Pony is a post hoc fallacy.

I hardly think any company in its right mind is going to spend truck loads of money to develope, manufacture, market, and ship a new product because an online petition says people (many with just first names) from just a country (I'm looking for Joe from Canada) wants them to.

Dabitch's picture

Got some more linkage here - Onlinefandom interviews Al Cabino on his search for the Holy grail (of sneakers).

Also, Al says (since he ain't signed up and can thus not comment I figured I'd pass this on)

By the way, "Online petitions may or may not persuade companies to release the desired products, but it does do one important thing. It tells us how many people want the products released. "

There are in fact many petitions out there that have a very high success rate, including My Little Pony petitions (this one for example below which was started around 2003 I believe) all made to encourage Hasbro to bring back even the first generation My Little ponies back to toy stores worldwide. And guess what? To celebrate the 25th anniversary of My Little Pony, Hasbro is going to re-realease the first 6 My Little Ponies to toy stores this coming Fall 2007 (official Hasbro press release below states that the company will be "unveiling a collector's set of six ponies based on the original group released in 1983") .

Links:http://www.petitiononline.com/mlp12 http://www.hasbro.com/media/pl/page.release

Me now - jesus christ My little pony is still out there? I can't believe it's creators haven't been shot yet. "It's for girls! Horsies! Long hair you can brush! Smells good! Comes in pink!" And we wonder where people like Paris spawn from. I bet she liked them. I used to set mine on fire. They melt nice.