Nike’s new Go FlyEase hands-free sneaker snaps around your foot

Nike creates a new model of hinged sneakers, created so that wearers can enter them without using their hands.

The Nike Go FlyEase shoe, revealed on Monday, is part of the company’s FlyEase line. The line allows wearers to use one or no hand to put on a pair of shoes, whether that person has special needs, is just in a hurry, or has their hands full.

A video released by the company shows how a hinge built into the slip-on shoe allows it to fold into the open position so the wearer can intervene. The wearer then puts his heel down to close the shoe securely. To remove the shoe, the wearer presses the heel with his opposite foot.

“Usually I spend so much time putting myself in my shoes,” Italian Paralympic gold medalist Bebe Vio said in a statement. “With the Nike Go FlyEase, I just put my feet up and jump on them. Shoes are a new kind of technology, not just for adaptive athletes, but for everyone’s real life.”

A Fast Company reviewer notes that wearers won’t feel the hinge, which is hidden under the sole of the shoe, and that a tension band holds the hinge in place while the shoe is worn.

Photos shared by Nike show three color choices – a predominantly all-black shoe with a dark blue accent; a shoe made of black, purple, orange, gray and blue stripes; and a shoe in light green, blue, pink and white.

The shoes will sell for $ 120 (around £ 88, AU $ 157). Starting February 15, “select Nike members” in North America, Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be invited to purchase them, Business Insider reports, and the shoe will eventually be more widely available.