Adidas launches second gen recycled shoes
18/11/2019
That second round, called Futurecraft Loop GEN 2, are going back to the 200 beta testers who returned their GEN 1 shoes. The first generation of shoes (which were distributed to beta testers in April) were white; this time the shoes, which are again fully recyclable, have a faded blue upper, which adidas said shows flexibility in what they call the Loop Creation Process.
“It feels like a major landmark on our journey to a circular product,” adidas wrote in an article describing the process behind the launch.
Futurecraft Loop shoes are the result of a decade of research and development and are “made to be remade", which means using only one type of material and no glue.
“Picture the scene: you’ve got 200 pairs of shoes piled up in a huge mound,” adidas said about the first step in re-collecting the beta shoes. “[The] scale really struck us – all these industrial cleaning machines in a massive laundry room, with five or six metal bins filled to the brim with shoes.”
After washing the worn shoes, the material was melted and developed into new pellets, which were heated to form new components including the eyelets and outsole, while virgin thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) was used for the remaining components of the midsole and upper. The remade and new materials were fused together to create a new generation shoe composed of one material and still 100% recyclable for the next generation.
“This is where we are today: launching the next generation of Futurecraft Loop and one step closer to a consumer reality – all in the space of just eight months,” the company said. “A first for adidas.”
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