A Brief History of Smart Sneakers

Year Introduced: 1984

It was the year of Orwell and Macintosh, a perfect time for the world's first computer-assisted sneaker. The adidas Micro Pacer had a futuristic look to match its performance, as its silver upper contained an advanced (for the time) microprocessor which measured everything from distance travelled to calories burned. It's since returned to the market several times as a curiosity, most recently as a Size? exclusive.

Year Introduced: 1989

Tinker Hatfield not only designed Marty McFly's Nike Air MAG for Back To The Future 2, he also storyboarded the scene. He is a man of many talents. The self-lacing Nikes immediately became the ultimate grail for sneaker collectors everywhere, and when a limited run were produced last year to support Michael J. Fox's Parkinsons foundation, they raised an impressive amount of cash. As for the self-lacing bit, well, wait until 2015.

Year Introduced: 2004

Reebok's Pump was a sensation when it first dropped in 1989, and it just grew from there. It started with the ball on the tongue, progressed to a CO2-powered "Insta Pump," then became self-aware automatic in 2004. The Pump 2.0 was a laceless shoe that pumped itself after just a few steps. It never really caught on as a performance product, but oh, what could have been.

Year Introduced: 2005

Take that, Shox. In 2005, adidas released the adidas_1, a running shoe featuring a microprocessor in the midsole that worked with servo motors to adjust heel cushioning on the fly, making it firmer or softer depending on conditions and impact. At $250, though, buyers were few and far between.

Year Introduced: 2006

Back in 2006, a $250 basketball shoe was a bit more of a stretch than it is now. adidas expanded their adidas_1 offering to the hardwood, where the computerized shoe was worn by Tim Duncan — to some, this may have seemed redundant.

Year Introduced: 2006

Nike and Apple teaming up? It didn't even seem fair. The sleek and somewhat unassuming Zoom Moire runner was the first Nike shoe to feature their new Nike+ technology, which allowed runners to sync their shoe with their iPod or iPhone to keep track of their mileage, pace, and all sorts of other key stats. The future had arrived.

Year Introduced: 2010

Banned by the NBA. This is what marketing dreams are made of. APL's Concept 1, a carbon-dipped $300 basketball shoe featuring their proprietary "Load 'N Launch" technology was pre-emptively banned by the NBA, presumably because it would provide an unfair competitive advantage. Independent reviews of the shoe were mixed, but those who believed had all the proof they needed.

Year Introduced: 2011

Soccer may include a lot of running (a LOT of running), but soccer is not running. Players change direction, change speeds, do all sorts of things that you wouldn't dream of doing on your morning run. So a soccer-specific sensor was going to need to do much, much more. Enter miCoach SPEED_CELL. The midsole-mounted sensor provides data on not only conventional running metrics, but also top speed, average speed, sprints, stride rates, and several other areas that would be of interest to the soccer player. For $280, you got a lot.

Year Introduced: 2012

Like soccer, basketball is a sport whose efforts can't be measured using traditional running metrics. There's jumping to take into account—hang time—as well as soccer's sprints and changes of direction. A normal Nike+ setup just wasn't going to cut it. So for the 2012 Olympics, Nike introduced Nike+ Basketball via the Hyperdunk+, a $250 system that essentially shrinks the Beaverton sports lab down small enough to fit into your shoes. A series of three sensors measure everything from your vertical—highest jump, average jump, number of jumps per game—as well as steps per second and number of sprints. All of which is wirelessly transmitted to your phone so you can brag about it (or cry about it) later.