[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Wa5L-fkkM
[2] https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/05/nike-mag-first-look/
That would be my one and only criticism of this implementation. Beyond that, it's pure awesomeness, and I want a pair.
An engineer that didn't have a marketing department breathing down his back to drive "engagement" would just have the LEDs on the side also be buttons and tell the user to hold them for 10 seconds to put them in a configuration mode, but hey, if they did that nike couldn't force you to give up your email to use your shoes and then use it to send you spam...
a) You don't have a better solution, or
b) You have a choice to go elsewhere
If Nike made you go through their own network (a sort of a DRM if you will) to operate their shoes, that's something to be criticized, because it serves absolutely no other function than to lock you into their ecosystem and give them data on you. Anti-consumer practices should always be criticized.
Maybe if they allowed you to have two settings that you can control from the boot, it would be different.
So I guess some criticism stems from that Nike made something that should be simple and intuitive, into something that requires your attention and needs configuration.
It can charge the battery by generating electricity off the forces exerted by the wearer's movement.
Why can't the shoe adapt to the swelling of your feet?
If the software did control the amount of pressure the laces transfer to the foot instead of the length of the laces the shoe would adapt to feet of any size.
Just add a few more sensors and write more software.
The other is a BS problem in search of a solution.