Puma goes ahead with InCycle launch
14/02/2013
It has subjected the new shoe and the other products in the new collection to analysis by the Cradle to Cradle movement, which aims to encourage consumer product manufacturers to use materials that can be recycled or that are biodegradable. The shoe and the athletic clothing in the InCycle collection have won Cradle to Cradle certification.
Upper materials Puma has used in the InCycle Basket include organic cotton and linen. The sole is composed of a new biodegradable plastic called APINATbio, which can be shredded into its component materials and composted to go back into the ecosystem.
The full collection also includes a Track Jacket made from polyester recycled from plastic bottles, and a backpack made from polypropylene, which can be broken down to polypropylene again at the end of the backpack’s lifecycle and used to make new backpacks.
To aid the product collection and recycling process, Puma has launched a programme called Bring Me Back, installing recycling bins in its stores for customers to return used shoes, clothing and accessories of any brand.
Puma said at the time of the commercial launch that InCycle products represent “a tremendous step forward in reducing our environmental footprint and giving consumers a more sustainable product choice”.
At a media event in October 2012 to introduce InCycle, the company published a comparison between the InCycle Basket and the Puma Suede shoe, which a consultancy in London had carried out for it. The aim of the exercise was to show the “environmental cost” of the two products, taking into account water-, energy- and land-use, and carbon emissions. The analysis appeared to suggest that the “environmental cost” of the suede used in the older Puma shoe would make the cost to the environment of each hide used to make the Puma Suede shoe substantially higher than the market value of the hide itself.
Questioned by World Leather magazine over several months about this conundrum, neither Puma nor the consultancy it worked with were able to justify the figures.
At the time of the commercial launch in February of the InCycle Basket, Puma made no mention of this comparison or of the analysis it had commissioned. One of the brand’s directors, Reiner Hengstmann, limited himself to saying InCycle products impacted the environment “by a third less than their conventional counterparts”, without going into any further detail.
Puma’s InCycle collection will become available in its stores from March 2013.
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