Sports shoe giant, Nike has revealed a new shoe called the Go FlyEase. It is the company’s first pair of lace-less sneakers that can easily be put on and taken off without using your hands.
Rather than laces, the shoe has a tension band that secures it. Putting them on involves stepping into the shoe, snapping it into place. Taking them off is done by stepping on the heel.
CNN notes that the shoe has arrived a time when “people are touching fewer things during the pandemic,” but it is also a great boon to those who are not able bodied. Accessibility is something that many people overlook when making products. Closed captions on YouTube and other social media services have slowly become the norm.
For people with no hands, severe arthritis, bad backs, and a number of other factors, this will be a great way for some of them to have a sneaker that works for them. I say “some” because of the price-point, but we shall get to that later.
The FlyEase line was inspired by Matthew Walzer, who was born with cerebral palsy and wrote to Nike in 2012. “At 16 years old, I am able to completely dress myself, but my parents still have to tie my shoes,” he said in the letter. “As a teenager who is striving to become totally self-sufficient, I find this extremely frustrating and, at times, embarrassing.” The first FlyEase models made sneakers more accessible by using zippers and cords but the Go FlyEase is the first that’s completely hands-free.
Bebe Vio, an Italian fencer who lost both her arms and legs to meningitis as a child, walks using prosthetic legs. “Usually I spend so much time to get in my shoes,” Vio said in a statement. “With the Nike Go FlyEase, I just need to put my feet in and jump on it. The shoes are a new kind of technology, not only for adaptive athletes but for everyone’s real life.”
Sure, there are other kinds of slip-on shoes out there (Crocs, for example), but when Nike debuted the shoes, Twitter users — including pregnant women, people with chronic pain and all kinds of disabilities — chimed in about how excited they are to see a stylish sneaker available for them.
According to Nike, the shoe will be on sale later this year.
