Move over, Marty McFly! The self-lacing sneakers that debuted in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II finally came to market Dec. 1 — and they can be yours if you have $720 to drop on a pair of kicks…
Read more: Report: Some cheap running shoes better than expensive ones
The true manufacturing cost of quality sneakers
Nike’s new shoe, which is called the HyperAdapt 1.0, is available exclusively through the footwear company’s relaunched Nike+ app and also at its own branded retail store in Manhattan.
But inquiring minds want to know…what does it actually cost to make high quality sneakers?
The true manufacturing cost is somewhere around $15 per pair, according to SneakerFactory.net. All the rest of the cost that you pay is marketing pizazz and fluff.
Clark himself routinely wears a pair of running shoes that he says ‘have no charisma whatsoever.’ They’re Filas that he got at Costco Wholesale for $19.99.
‘I wear running shoes every day of my life. So after I bought one pair and decided I liked them, I went back and bought six more pairs knowing I can wear them over time,’ the consumer champ says. ‘So I spent $140 on seven pairs vs. $720 for one pair of the HyperAdapt sneakers.’
In Clark’s book, the HyperAdapt 1.0 is an outrageous waste of money.
‘Parents, what are you teaching your kids if you’re buying these things for them?’ the penny-pincher wonders. ‘The opposite of the value of a dollar, to be sure. And I don’t want to hear that it’s ‘fashion.”
Read more: This is why you probably shouldn’t wear shoes in your house
