Nike auctioning Marty McFly NIKE MAG shoes on eBay

All proceeds for the Back to the Future shoes will go towards The Michael J. Fox Foundation

I have a dark secret that I don’t share with a lot of people.  In fact, it was almost a dealbreaker for my marriage.  But…it has to be said. 

I never liked the Back to the Future movies.

I just can’t get into them!  I’M SORRY!  I’m sorry to every boyfriend who broke up with me over this while giving me some BS line like, “it’s not you, it’s me,” or “I need some space,” or “I’m seeing someone else.”

 But for those of you who DO like the Back to the Future movies, or those who just like silly shoes, you’re in luck.  Nike announced Friday that it has created 1500 pairs of the NIKE MAG shoes made famous in Back to the Future II.  The shoes will be auctioned on eBay and all proceeds will go to The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which promotes research on Parkinson’s Disease in the hopes of finding a cure.  

The auction began last night at 8:30 pm PT and already the shoes, which come in different sizes, are commanding some big numbers.  The first batch, which will be available for another 13 hours, are already going for as much as $5300 a pair.

Each day during the ten-day auction, another batch of 150 NIKE MAG shoes will be made available in eBay’s Fashion Vault.  The auction ends September 18.

The shoes are almost an exact replica of those worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II, when he travels to the year 2015, complete with the glowing LED panel and the electroluminescent Nike in the strap.  Nike adds that if you pinch the ear of the high-top, the shoes will glow for five hours per charge.

The idea for the auction came after The Micheal J. Fox Foundation received a $50 million match grant from Google’s Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki.  Under the terms of the grant, Brin and Wojcicki have agreed to match all donations made to the foundation up to $50 million until the end of 2012.

“We wanted to translate the excitement people have for the ‘greatest shoe never made’ and for the Back to the Future into positive action,” said Mark Parker, Nike CEO, who was on the Back to the Future II set back in 1988 when Michael J. Fox first wore the original NIKE MAG shoes. “But the long-term objective is to raise awareness so the Foundation can achieve their goal of eradicating Parkinson’s disease.”

To promote the auction, Back to the Future Executive Producer Frank Marshall joined the campaign and helped develop a plan for a “lost scene,” in which Doc travels to the year 2011 in search of the shoes, but is told that the power lacing shoes won’t be available until 2015. The one-minute video stars Christopher Lloyd, SNL's Bill Hader, basketball star Kevin Durant, original cast member Donald Fullilove, and the original NIKE MAG designer and VP of Design at Nike, Tinker Hatfield, who plays the sales manager.