Commercial launch for Reebok’s ‘plant-based’ shoe
The director of advanced development in Reebok’s Future team has described the challenges he faced researching and creating a "plant-based" shoe, as part of Forever Floatride GROW running shoe’s launch campaign.
Mike Andrews was challenged by boss Paul Litchfield to build a plant-based shoes platform in 2014.
His team envisaged a shoe that would perform better than others but would be made entirely from plant-based materials and commercially or municipally compostable. “This was certainly a lofty goal, but every mistake and every failed test has been a journey of growth, education and even some frustration and doubt,” he said.
“I spent the next three years attending trade shows and lectures from renowned plastics engineers. Whenever I came across an interesting material, I would test to see if it could fit within the project scope.”
In 2017, Reebok introduced the Cotton & Corn, a shoe made with organic cotton and DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products’ Susterra, a propandiol derived from field corn. It also established the Reebok Sustainability Platform, which has two key pillars, [REE]GROW and [REE]CYCLE. “The platform guides us and gives us focus on this journey. It has also led us closer to the fully compostable plant-based shoes we’d envisioned years earlier,” said Mr Andrews.
From October 1, consumers be able to buy Forever Floatride GROW, 59% of the which comes from the land – castor beans, eucalyptus tree, Bloom algae foam and rubber trees - and which Reebok describes as “one of the most sustainable athletic shoes ever created”.
