Nike launches ‘most sustainably-minded’ performance shoe
Following Nike Basketball’s Cosmic Unity, which had 25% recycled content by weight, the Alphafly Next Nature has reached at least 50% total recycled content by weight.
Rachel Bull, senior footwear product director for Nike Running, said: “We don’t want to be about making shiny objects — we wanted to set our concept car as the intent for how we think about performance and sustainability,”
The Nike ZoomX midsole was made with at least 70 percent recycled materials by weight. Ms Bull attributes a big part of the magic of Nike racing shoes to the ZoomX foam, notably Eliud Kipchoge’s daring quest to break the 2-hour marathon barrier. If any of it is going to waste, she says, it’s a huge loss for the people who would potentially wear those shoes on race day. One solution: Put the leftover recycled foam from the midsole back into the sock liner.
The Alphafly Next Nature uses leftover waste from Nike airbag production in the 3D-printing process that creates the textile for the hybrid Nike Flyprint and Nike Flyknit upper.
“The exciting thing about pushing performance and sustainability forward with the Alphafly Next Nature is that we know if we can do it with our most pinnacle performance product, then so much is validated to bring that technology into the rest of the line,” said Ms Bull.
