Al Cabino kinda jumps out at people.
First, he sends me an email:
I would love to talk with you about my international sneaker campaign.
This is the world’s first and only international sneaker petition.
Talk soon.
When I mail back and agree to talk to him about his mission to get Nike to manufacture replicas of the grey moonboot sneakers worn by Michael J. Fox’s character Marty McFly in the 1989 flick Back to the Future Part II, he calls my home number before we’ve set on an interview time and says, simply, “Hey. It’s me.”
He’s that kinda guy. He just wades right in.
His petition for the Nike McFlys went online last November at petitiononline.com/future2. He’s got more than 24,000 signatures and a commercial on YouTube. When will he submit the petition to Nike? He doesn’t know. Why does he want the sneakers?
“They are the holy grail of movie sneakers,” the chatty 29-year-old Montreal west islander says. “That’s not just me . They are. Look: Rocky ’s Chuck Taylors, you can get them; Forrest Gump’s Nike Quartets; Eddie Murphy’s Adidas from Beverly Hills Cop; Uma Thurman’s Tai Chi Tigers from Kill Bill…”
Yeah, but why?
They’re from the past, he says—because they were made for the 1989 sequel to Back to the Future—but they were created to look like shoes from 2015. “It’s nostalgic. It’s futuristic. It’s the only shoe that has those two things.
“Plus, if they decide to make them, a lot of people are going to be happy.”
A cool 24K have signed on with Cabino, but in the quagmire of Internet petitions, it’s difficult to know how many people really want the shoes. How much lobby weight do you put behind “Jimmy” from “USA” and “ghklkj” of no fixed address? Or, more importantly, how much significance is Nike going to attach to those signatures? Michael J. Fox is on there too. Er, more than once.
“We don’t have confirmation on that,” Cabino says.
Cabino doesn’t care if signing the petition is as easy as a few beak pecks on the keyboard. He’s unfazed by the name repeats. He heeds not the consideration that becoming signatory 24,236 is a task fitting to fill the time waiting for a reply to load on a messageboard.
“Look, for the McFlys, it’s not a commentary on anything,” he says, (though he calls himself a sneaker activist). “It’s just, I want the shoes.”
The only pair—the ones worn by Michael J. Fox in the film—resides at the Nike archive in Beavertown, Oregon. But Cabino doesn’t want those. He wants Nike to make new ones. Lots of them. And in that it’s evident this is a conquest that goes beyond scoring the “holy grail” of sneakers and that has nothing to do with preserving market value by keeping supply limited.
“Having lots of pairs doesn’t make them less special. Take the Chuck Taylor—there are millions of those shoes. And it doesn’t take away anything from that shoe. They were worn by Rocky. They’re worn by rockers. People still love the shoe. They’re still special.
“At the end of the day if people are happy rockin’ a pair of McFlys, then, like, what’s wrong with people being happy? What’s wrong with that?”
Cabino, I thought at first your laces didn’t tie right. But goddammit, you have got a point.
Would you rock a pair of McFlys? Email: lezliel@thecoast.ca
This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2006.