Nike has shown off an intriguing new sneaker that it claims is the “world’s first powered footwear system.”
The project, dubbed “Project Amplify,” is essentially an exoskeleton for your lower leg and foot, strapping an ankle movement-augmenting motor, drive belt, and rechargeable battery to a carbon fiber-reinforced sneaker.
The goal, it says, is to provide an “unparalleled boost to anyone who wants to move,” while “creating a new future for running, jogging and walking.”
Nike compared its project to “how electric bikes have made it easier to ride farther and more frequently,” an intriguing comparison seemingly intended to emphasize that this isn’t an accessibility play, like other more fully-featured exoskeletons, intended only for those with limited mobility.
But besides causing even more drama on Strava, where cheating scandals on leaderboards involving e-bikes have become all too common, we’re not convinced Project Amplify will catch on in the mainstream. Nike has already garnered a reputation for outlandish concepts, most notably its “Back to the Future”-inspired self-lacing shoes — which, as you can tell from nobody around you wearing them, never really took off.
“The Amplify makes your 5K PR feel like a casual trot, and a casual trot feel like a gentle stroll,” GQ‘s Calun Marsh wrote after taking a pair for a spin.
Marsh wrote that a two-story ramp on a 45-degree angle at Nike’s LeBron James Innovation Center in Beaverton, Oregon, which had winded him earlier that day, “felt like taking the escalator instead of the stairs” while wearing the new shoes.
Apart from Project Amplify, Nike also announced a slew of other “athlete-focused” products to help them “perform at their peak,” including a “neuroscience-based footwear to help athletes feel calm,” a jacket that provides “dynamic warmth and personalized thermal control,” and a new fabric that’s “capable of channeling more than double the airflow of legacy Nike athletic apparel” intended for a “hotter world.”
Nike promises that it’s planning to “bring the footwear system to a broad consumer launch in the coming years.”
Just don’t wear them during a race — or risk being disqualified on the spot.
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