Nike’s $350 ‘smart’ shoes are refusing to lace themselves following software update

It’s bad enough when your phone or laptop is having technical difficulties, but that headache has now extended to footwear, after owners of Nike’s new smart sneakers have reported shoe malfunctions following an Android update.

Owners of the newly released $350 Adapt BB shoes were unimpressed to find one of the pair of their new shoes wasn’t syncing with Nike’s app, meaning they were unable to enjoy the shoes’ self-lacing feature and had to go old school and manually tighten their sneakers themselves.

Adapt BB’s boast a power-lacing system called FitAdapt that is controlled by the app or with buttons on the shoes. Some users reported that the motor in their shoes had stopped working altogether.

“App won’t pair with left shoe. Paired with sneakers right after unboxing then completely crashed after last update,” one irate customer commented on the Nike app’s Play Store page.

“Whenever I try connecting my shoes, it says error try again or it says it’s already connected with another pair of shoes,” said another.

The issue is said to be be related to an Android update that came out days after the shoes were released. Some users said a hard reset got their shoe to work again. Those using the iOs apps haven’t reported any problems.

The mystery of the misbehaving shoes may have been solved as The Verge reports that some shoes were sent out with an earlier version of the in-shoe software installed and this caused problems when pairing with the Android app.

The software debacle isn’t even the biggest shoe-related headache Nike is facing this week as on Wednesday night a shoe worn by the hottest prospect in US college basketball, Zion Williamson, burst apart as the Duke player went up against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The sportswear company’s share price dropped by more than 1 percent when trading opened on Thursday.

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