We’ve followed Allbirds closely as the shoe company expands its sustainable footwear line to include both sustainable and completely biodegradable shoes. Now, the brand is bringing its eco-friendly design to an even broader audience with the announcement of its partnership with Adidas.
Part of Adidas’ Futurecraft line, the new Futurecraft.Footprint shoe is a running shoe with a low manufacturing carbon footprint of just 6.5 pounds of carbon dioxide. For comparison, researchers at MIT’s Materials Systems Laboratory found that the average shoe emits about 30 pounds of carbon dioxide during production.
There are many points along the production line in which shoe manufacturers can cut out emissions and waste. Allbirds takes advantage of this process by using sustainable materials like merino wool and castor bean oil, as well as cutting back on packaging, and reducing shipping emissions.
Allbirds is bringing these same principles to their new partnership. The new design will replace traditional thermoplastic urethane with Allbirds’ SweetFoam and the shoe is 30 percent Tencel, a cellulose fiber material made from wood pulp. They’re also using innovative stitching designs to eliminate the need for additional reinforcement materials, making the shoes less resource-intensive and lighter.
The shoes are still in development, and won’t be available to the public until fall 2021, but the two companies plan to distribute them to athletes as recovery or training shoes in advance of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Image source: Sneaker News
