New Nike Flyease Is Designed for People Who Need Help Tying Laces

Nike chose to fulfil his wish and, after working on testing prototypes for three years with Walzer, the result is the model Zoom Soldier 8 Flyease, specifically created to make the task of tying shoes easier.

Up until working with Nike, when I needed a new pair of shoes, we had to go the mall and make a day out of it. We’d go to every store.

For Nike to stay true to their own corporate credo, they had to find a solution to Walzer’s dilemma, which also happened to afflict Jeff Johnson, the very first Nike employee who suffered a stroke in 2004 and lost control of the right side of his body.

That led to Walzer’s trip to Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., where he was greeted by Hatfield and presented the first pair of the Zoom Solider 8 Flyease shoes, in the colorway of LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers, which he promptly donned just in time to meet James himself.

A request gone viral: Instead, his letter gained major traction, swarming Twitter with the hashtag #NikeLetter and eventually making its way to Tobie Hatfield, a designer at Nike who’s worked on designs for Paralympic athletes and had already been looking into comfortable designs for people with disabilities, according to Fast Company.

For Walzer and Hatfield, the future of these shoes seems to be nothing but bright.

Hatfield also brainstormed ideas for cerebral palsy patients after the success of Nike Sole, a foam cover designed for amputees’ prosthetic blades. I can only wear this type of shoe because I need ankle support to walk.

In 2012, Nike founder Mark Parker received a letter via social media from a 16-year-old high school student named Matt Walzer.

But the sneakers weren’t only developed for Walzer. “A tunneling system filled with internal cords wraps from the heel all the way around the shoe’s upper to sit on top of the instep, where they resemble laces”.

Walzer is now a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University, sporting his custom FlyEase shoes.

“Out of all the challenges I have overcome in my life, there is one that I am still trying to master, tying my shoes”. While his parents often helped him, Walzer wanted to be able to move about independently. As seen on Nike’s YouTube video, the laces are more for show. In late July, Nike will be sending the shoes to two USA teams participating in the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in L.A.