Tired of Nike sitting on their asses and not creating commercially available self-lacing shoes? Well, if you have a box of LEGO and a desire to feel like Marty McFly we have the project for you.

Designer Vimal Patel has tackled the problem of the lazy laces by adding some LEGO attachment points to an old pair of Nike sneakers. Using a Dremel and some hot glue he made the shoe LEGO compatible so it could be built upon.

To this Patel added a gearing mechanism powered by one of the small official motors LEGO makes. It terminates in a shaft which the laces are tied to. When the motors spins the shaft turns and pulls the laces tight. Not really tying them, but good enough to keep the shoe firmly on a foot.

Now, by Patel’s own words, this is just a quick experiment that “works reasonably well, but… can be done much better with a bit of effort”. Some problems with the bulk of the design are specific to LEGO though, such as the large battery box on the heel and the need for the IR sensor at the back which receives commands from a small controller.

While we’re on the topic of footwear and LEGO, we feel that we have to show you the shoes below. These were real shoes sold as part of a cross promotion with the classic Bionicle theme of sets. They’re really, really ugly, but there’s something so quintessentially early 2000’s about them that makes it enduring. Oh, and that red coloured part at the end of the shoe could be interchanged, mimicking the masks that formed a big part of the Bionicle toy line and lore.

The early 2000’s man, it was a magical time.

[Source – Cargo Collective