Nike Self-Lacing Shoes Stumble Into Brick Wall Thanks To Android App Failure

Nike was the brand that Marty McFly wore on his feet in the classic science fiction flick Back to the Future II. Next to the hoverboard he rode in that film, the shoes that lace themselves are what many fans wanted. Fast forward a few decades and Nike launched a version of those self-lacing sneakers that consumers could buy with the first pair landing in 2016. The catch was that the first pair of self-lacing shoes were very expensive, but a cheaper pair came later.

The most recent self-lacing Nike shoes are the Adapt BB sneakers, and they work with an Android or iOS app. The Android version of the app landed last week, and reports are flooding in from owners of the fancy sneakers that the app is failing and leaving their shoes bricked. A slew of users took to Google Play to leave poor reviews and beg for anyone who had solved the problem to post how they fixed it in the comments.

Users reported that the Android app wouldn't pair with the sneakers, though one user does say that the app paired with the sneakers out of the box. However, the user reports that once the most recent update was applied, the app crashed completely. Nike support was of little help in solving the problem for users. Another use notes that the Android app says "error try again" or says it is already connected with another pair of shoes when they try and pair the app with their shoes.

One user named Eddison Dagdagan says that the fix for his bricked shoes was to use his wife's iPhone and the iOS version of the app to update. He noted that the iOS version of the app works "perfectly fine." Once the update is applied via an iPhone, the Android app connects to the shoes according to reports, and all is well in the fancy sneaker world.