TIL about self-lacing shoes... What a waste of fucking resources. Might as well add some flashing red lights at the back of the soles if you already have batteries in them.
Honestly if they got the cost down and figured out a better interaction mechanism than an app, I could see it being useful for older or disabled individuals.
For example, imagine someone is 55. They are still with it, and decently active for this age. However they have arthritis in their hands that makes tasks that require dexterity mildly uncomfortable. These kinds of shoes would be a pretty big boon for them in terms of staying active.
The issue is that they tried to make it some cool fashion accessory for Gen Z sneaker heads to buy.
They have buttons on the shoes too. Still, having a battery for something like this is just wasteful and pointless. People with disabilities have already several unpowered alternatives that work perfectly fine and as mentioned, those things are clearly not designed for that purpose in mind anyway.
You could also just, idk, by Velcro shoes or get lock laces.
Edit: Got downvoted but that's literally what my mother with arthritis uses. Lock laces and a shoe horn. Lock laces are basically the low tech and reliable version of what these app shoes have.