The new sneaker innovation from Nike? No hand required

Nike’s new shoe can help athletes and non-athletes alike get out faster. The sporting goods company unveiled hands-free shoes on Monday that make dressing and undressing faster.

The new slip-on shoe, called the Nike Go FlyEase, doesn’t require wearers to use their hands to put the sneaker on and off. This makes it suitable for people on the go as well as a range of athletes with physical disabilities, according to the compay.

“In the Nike Go FlyEase, that means serving the widest range of active lifestyles possible – whether the wearer is champion fencer Bebe Vio, a student running in class, or a parent with their hands full,” Nike said in a statement. communicated.

Vio, an Italian fencer, who lost her arms and legs to meningitis as a child and competes in a wheelchair, walks using prosthetic legs. Putting on your shoes is usually a time consuming activity.

“Usually I spend so much time putting myself in my shoes,” 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.”

Sarah Reinertsen, American Paralympic athlete and member of the FlyEase design team, said people with disabilities, pregnant women and busy parents were among those who inspired the shoe concept.

“If you design for the most extreme needs, you unlock benefits for everyone,” she says. “If a shoe works for someone with no hands, then it will work for those with two hands.”

“We were also inspired by pregnant women who don’t even have children yet but can barely bend over during their third trimester,” added Reinertsen.

Earlier FlyEase models allow for faster entry and exit through the use of zippers and drawstrings, but neither are completely hands-free. The collection of running, basketball and everyday shoes was designed to “unlock benefits for all athletes,” according to Nike.

The innovative $ 120 shoe will be available in limited quantities on February 15 and will be made more widely available later this year, according to Nike.

Consumers on social media have praised the latest style.

“Hyped for the @Nike #GOFlyEase my sister lost the use of her left arm in 2007 and that would be great for her,” Twitter user Roman Ruiz said.