Nike Adapt BB: New self-lacing trainer app breaks just days after launch

The shoes themselves are crashing, owners complain

Andrew Griffin
Saturday 23 February 2019 10:30 GMT
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(Nike/PA)

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People's shoes are crashing after a Nike app stopped working.

Nike's new Adapt BB shoes have been hailed as the future of sneakers, after they were released just days ago. They use futuristic motors to allow them to be precisely tightened up automatically, without any shoelaces or other input.

All of that can be controlled by an app, which allows people to slip on the shoes and then let the motors do the work of tightening them up, in a way shoelaces would traditionally work. They use much the same technology that allowed Nike to recreate the self-lacing shoes from Back To The Future in a limited run.

But that feature has broken after the Android app stopped syncing with the sneakers. Now, the shoes have lost one of their main features and cannot be controlled in the way they are intended.

The problems have led to a raft of one star reviews on the Google Play Store, as customers complain the shoes are crashing.

"App wont pair with left shoe," the top review reads. "Paired with sneakers right after unboxing then completely crashed after last update."

Another reviewer wrtes: "whenever I try connecting my shoes, it says error try again or it says it's already connected with another pair of shoes".

Most complain that the app has broken on the left shoe specifically, while the right shoe continues to work.

The iOS version of the app is still working, suggesting the problem is with the design of the Android tools.

The problems appear to have arrived after Nike sent out a firmware update intended to fix problems with the shoes. Downloading and applying that caused the Android app to break.

The shoes do have manual controls, meaning that people can lean down and tie them up. But a large part of the functionality is built around the fact they can be controlled through the companion app, allowing for easy tightening when needed.

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