It's been 26 years since we saw them magically tightening³ Marty McFly's Nike boots in Back to The Future.

 

Now, self-tying shoelaces could actually become a reality this year, proving right one of the film's fantastical predictions for what 2015 would be like.

 

Engineers have designed a shoe that can automatically lace up, adjusting itself to the shape of your foot. 

 

Simply slip the trainer on and pressure sensors⁴ will tell the 'smart shoe' when your foot is in position, triggering a tiny motor in the heel that pulls the laces tight.

 

When you want to take off the shoes, you click your heels together twice and the motor will release a spring in the shoe's tongue, which loosens the laces enough for you to slip them off. 

 

And the ingenious invention doesn't even need to be plugged in to charge or have its battery replaced because it runs on power generated by the swing of your foot as you walk. 

 

Engineer Klevis Ylli, of the Institute for Micromachining and Information Technology in southern Germany, said the shoes could help a variety of different people.

 

"One focus is that it could be used in shoes for elderly people who have mobility⁵ problems," he said. "But it could also work for children, or as a lifestyle product."

 

The design, which is still in a prototype phase, cleverly captures the energy of the foot's swing when opposing magnets in each shoe move past each other.

 

It then uses that power to charge a battery. An hour of walking is enough to tighten² the laces once, and it requires no energy to undo⁶ the shoes because that relies on the spring alone.

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