15 Things You Never Knew About the Nike MAG

There's more to the MAG than you ever knew.

Nike MAG
Complex Original
Nike MAG

All signs pointed to the return of the Nike MAG in 2015. But as the highly anticipated date of Oct. 21 came and went, it was only Michael J. Fox that got a pair—the rest of us had to wait until the Fall of 2016 when a charity raffle was held, with less than 100 pairs of the auto-lacing version available to the public. 

In the years since, auto-lacing sneakers have become more widely available, with the HyperAdapt 1.0 debuting later in 2016, followed by the first performance model to utilize the technology: 2019's Adapt BB. But it all started 30 years ago today, when Back to the Future Part 2 released on Nov. 22, 1989.

Back when the Nike Mag returned in 2011, we spoke at great length with the shoe’s creator, Tinker Hatfield, and the developer that helped make its original comeback a reality, Tiffany Beers. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the shoe's debut, here are 15 things you may not have known about the infamous sneaker.

1. The MAG was the first shoe Nike designed specifically for a movie.

2. The MAG’s name comes from the word “magnetic.”

3. Nike actually had a say in the story of the movie.

4. The MAG in the movie didn’t actually power-lace.

5. Multiple sizes of the original Nike MAGs were made.

6. The line, “Power laces!” came from Tinker Hatfield.

7. The shoe’s construction was inspired by Tinker’s vision of how sneakers would be made in the future.

8. The MAG is the best known, but not the only sneaker Nike has created for a movie.

9. The return of the MAG made its unofficial debut on the feet of its developer, Tiffany Beers.

10. The process to remake the MAG began in October of 2005.

11. The original plan was for the MAG to return for the 20th anniversary of the movie.

12. In order to help keep the 2011 release a secret, weartesting had to be done by the factory workers.

13. Once the shoes were made, they were kept in a special warehouse.

14. The highest bid on a single pair of 2011 MAGs was $37,500.

15. The 10-day total of Nike MAGs auctioned off in 2011 reached $4.7 million.