Adidas’ latest running shoe is subtle and soft-looking, with stitching that evokes the sea. It’s also made almost entirely from plastic recovered from the ocean.
Last year Adidas announced it was working on a shoe with the intent of playing a small role in cleaning up the oceans and adjust its supply chain to better reflect the constraints of climate change.
Partnering with Parley for the Oceans, a non-profit committed to reducing plastic
waste in the oceans, Adidas developed a finished product earlier this year with 95% ocean plastic recovered from near the Maldives.
And the shoe isn’t just a gimmick. It represents real change for the brand.
Soon, 7,000 pairs of the “Ultra BOOST Uncaged Parley” will be on sale for $220 each. The brand aims to produce 1 million pairs of the sneakers from more than 11 million plastic bottles.
As Adidas notes on the product page, the shoes are “ spinning the problem into a solution. The threat into a thread.”
This initiative allows consumers everywhere to show their appreciation for the oceans and could potentially spur other companies to see the ocean’s waste problem as an opportunity for innovative environmentalism.
It’s no secret that the world’s oceans are filled with plastic and that this is harming marine life.
Each year, 8 million tons or 7.2 billion kilograms of plastic enter the world’s oceans. There are about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans today. Big pieces of plastic are routinely ingested by animals that then face a range of health problems. As plastic breaks down it leaches toxic chemicals into the water and deteriorates into small debris that blanket the ocean’s floors and are ingested by organisms up and down the food chain.
On its own, Adidas is merely chipping away at the problem, but the huge multinational corporation is shining a light on the problem and is lending credibility to clean-up efforts.
When supply chains become circular and self-sustaining, the environment is protected from overexploitation and pollution. If this becomes the norm, then environments everywhere will be saved. And then there will be a lot more space to test out these sneakers.
Edited from Global Citizen
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