Nike Goes 'Back To The Future'

Like many stories these days, this one begins with a couple curiously synced-up tweets.

So "Back to the Future" producer Frank Marshall informs his followers, "Something big is coming soon. Can't say anything yet. No one should know too much about their own destiny."

OK, that's a well-played reference cue for "Back To The Future" fans to awaken their fan-frenzy.

But . . . why? The downloadable video game series has concluded. The trilogy has made its way onto every viewable format save Netflix streaming. And director Robert Zemeckis has long since made good his promise that the third movie would be the last.

Theatrical re-release, perhaps via Fathom Events to AMC theaters nationwide, ala the anniversaries of "The Big Lebowski" or "A Nightmare On Elm Street" or Brian De Palma's "Scarface"?

No, studios usually save those five to 10-year anniversary intervals.

But can you guess which Hill Valley icon of icons could almost certainly know just exactly what a "Back To The Future" originator could possibly be cryptically foretelling? Who is the most logical source to which any in-the-know lover of automotive time-travel would first turn?

Who on Earth do you think, fan-child? Prolific footwear blog Nike Kicks.

Who did you expect? That runty Reaganite from "Family Ties"?

If that was where you looked first, then you found out that Nike has planned a special Thursday-night unveiling for a special "Back To The Future" shoe line. Blogger Matt Halfhill wrote that Nike representatives gave him a call around midnight Sept. 7 and within hours, had him jetting toward the athleticwear collossus' Los Angeles offices.

Upon arriving, reps whisked Halfhill away to a room with a black box (Gwyneth Paltrow head or recording of the last flight of a certain "lost" Oceanic Airlines flight not included), iPod Shuffle and idiot-proofed directions for what function Halfhill could possibly be meant to carry out with the mp3 player.

"Play me."

When he did, Halfhill was greeted with the dulcet tones of . . . . Dr. Emmett L. Brown?

“Welcome to Los Angeles. If my calculations are correct, over the next 24 hours you are about to see some SERIOUS SH*T!” 

Inside the box, Halfhill received an invite reading " “IT’S ABOUT TIME…an unveiling that could change the course of time," as well as some damn familiar metal-shield glasses.

Elsewhere on a table, Halfhill said the good Nike-folk had laid out Pepsi Throwback (a formula dating back to circa 1985), some mid-'80s candy (OK . . . . ew?) and as a last emphatic blow like being broadsided by a Huey Lewis-driven DeLorean, a copy of "Back to the Future."

By the time he'd left, he all but had confirmed suspicions that Nike will be unveiling the tribute Marty McFly Nike Air Mag shoes, whose design Nike Kicks confirmed had been U.S. Patent Office-registered over a year ago.

But Marshall got himself one last word . . . er, tweet. With one more big "hint-hint" video.

"We're gonna need more hoverboards."

More? I'd settle for one.