E-Mail This Article to a Friend SHOE-LEATHER REPORTING "Sneaker activist" petitions for pair of McFlys BY CAMILLE DODERO

Remember Marty McFly’s grey moon-boot-styled Nikes from Back to the Future II? The Velcro-ankle-strapped ones Michael J. Fox wore in 2015 as he zipped around on that cool Mattel hovercraft? Those high-topped thick-soled kicks you could never buy?

Al Cabino, a hard-core sneakerhead from Montreal, remembers them well. So well that he wants his own pair. Minor problem: Nike never actually made any for public consumption — McFly’s futuristic shoes were movie props.

So last week the self-described "sneaker activist" created an online petition "to request that Nike create a pair of these kicks to be sold to the public." He plans to hand-deliver the petition to Nike’s Oregon headquarters when he gets "a respectable amount" of signatures.

"We’re talking the most mythical sneaker in film history," says a fast-talking Cabino, who won’t divulge his age or day job ("I like to be mysterious"), over the phone from Canada. "The Holy Grail of the movie sneaker is the McFly one."

Cabino thinks that with enough support, Nike might respond. He points out that other famous film sneakers like, say, Eddie Murphy’s Adidas kicks from Beverly Hills Cop, have been available for purchase. Plus, after a similar fan-signed petition clamoring for the yellow Tigers Uma Thurman wore in Kill Bill, Asics released them in a limited-edition run of 1500. And there’s been this rumor that Nike had planned to make the McFlys anyway. "There was actually a street legend that in 2015 these sneakers would be made available by Nike," says Cabino. "But I’m not going to wait 10 years. Almost 900 people that signed [the petition] so far, they don’t want to wait 10 years. I coined the term ‘sneaker activist’ and I’m going to get some change."

This past Sunday, three "celebrity" autographs appeared among the online signatures: Nicole Richie’s fiancé Adam Goldstein (DJ AM) (#11), Kanye West protégé Lupe Fiasco (#591), and Bill McMullen (a/k/a Billions McMillions), Def Jam Recording’s former design director (#770). Cabino had also started receiving hate mail from people critical of his appropriation of the word ‘activist.’ "I’m not saying we’re ending world hunger," Cabino says in his defense. "We’re enjoying life. I live and breathe sneakers. I’m not taking anything away from the fight for workers’ rights." He adds, "But big companies are big companies."

Cabino, who earlier this year commissioned a pair of MTV.com-featured Swiss-chocolate Nike Vandals that he brags are "the world’s first-ever chocolate sneakers," also claims that he’s not a covert Nike agent trying to drum up faux-grassroots press for the corporate monolith.

"This is a pure petition," he insists. "I’ve been involved in sneaker culture for the last two years. I don’t work for Nike. I just love their shoes.By Camille Dodero

View Al Cabino’s petition online at www.petitiononline.com/future2/petition.html.