Nike has officially entered its cyborg era. On Thursday, the company revealed Project Amplify, a sneaker so advanced that it’s really more of a robot leg than a shoe. It’s a motor-assisted exoskeleton that grips onto your ankle, supposedly making your calves feel like a pair of motorcycles has replaced them.
While it looks like a prototype for a new kind of coffee machine, Nike itself describes it as “the world’s first powered footwear system.” That sounds like a slap in the face of the classic Reebok Pumps with the little squeezy pump device on the tongue that did… something, I’m sure of it.
Created with robotics partner Dephy, Project Amplify is an e-bike for your legs. Surprisingly, considering how technologically advanced the thing appears, it isn’t designed for high-end professionals, but rather, for us, everyday folks who need a little extra oomph in our step to power us through common walking challenges… like getting winded after ascending a single flight of stairs.
Nike’s Powered Shoes Are Basically a Robot Exoskeleton for Your Legs
Nike says the shoes will give you “a second set of calf muscles” and promise to make running or walking faster, for longer, while making it less miserable. You will, in essence, offload some of the work to the machine, allowing you to do more than you ever thought possible.
Inside the sleek, carbon fiber-reinforced design hides a rechargeable battery, a drive belt, and a tiny motor working together to power your every step literally. GQ’s Calum Marsh actually got to give these things a literal test run at Nike’s LeBron James Innovation Center in Oregon, and said it felt like “taking the escalator instead of the stairs.”
Marsh claimed it made his 5K personal record feel like a lazy jog, which, depending on your level of fitness guilt, sounds either amazing or like cheating on yourself.
There’s no way to know whether this thing will actually make it to market, so it can be purchased by the ordinary person they claim it is designed for, since Nike does have a history of designing wild, one-of-a-kind stuff that they then exclusively sell to wealthy Hypebeasts and shoe collectors. Still, this one seems to have a more practical application for people with mobility issues.
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