Brand-name sneaker regeneration road: your Nike shoes may be "reincarnation" of plastic bottles

 Sports brand Nike recently launched a number of new products, including the Space Hippie series made of environmentally friendly materials. According to the Nike design team, the Space Hippie series is made of "production waste". From material selection to production to packaging, every detail will consider the product's impact on the environment and reduce carbon emissions to a very low level.

Made of recycled materials for footwear and clothing, Nike converted 1 billion plastic bottles last year

The Space Hippie series has a total of 4 shoes, and the upper of each shoe uses at least 85% of rPoly fabric. This material is made from recycled plastic bottles and waste T-shirts and factory surplus yarn and other waste materials. The manufacturing technology is derived from Nike Flyknit technology. The fabric is light and elastic and can fit on the feet like socks.

The rubber sole uses 15% of the Nike Grind material, which is based on Nike's existing products and original materials, and is recycled through procedures such as color adjustment and processing. It is reported that about 71% of Nike's footwear and apparel products use Nike Grind materials.

Today, waste has become an important raw material for Nike sneakers. The Nike Impact Report released by Nike shows that 99.9% of the waste generated during the manufacturing process of Nike footwear products have been reused.

In addition, in 2019, Nike will convert more than 1 billion plastic bottles into renewable materials, making footwear and clothing. Since 2010, Nike has converted more than 7.5 billion plastic bottles recovered from landfills and other places. The common Flyknit fabric of Nike sports shoes, the polyester fiber in the raw yarn comes from the recycled waste plastic bottles. Some jerseys also use recycled polyester. Nike's 2017-2018 season jerseys use 20 plastic bottles.

The reason why environmental protection is so important is that in addition to taking on the corporate public responsibility, Nike ’s actions are even more significant in showing consumers a healthy positive brand image. In recent years, while the fashion industry has flourished, it has become one of the most polluted industries, second only to the oil industry. From the acquisition of raw materials, dyeing and production, to logistics and transportation, and the treatment of old clothes, the fashion industry runs a lot of wastewater, carbon emissions and waste of resources. This makes many fashion brands stand on the cusp of public opinion and have to launch corresponding environmental protection measures, so sustainable fashion has become one of the most important trends in the fashion industry.

Launches fully recyclable sneakers, adidas wants to end "waste" concept

Sports shoe brands have great advantages in the innovation of environmentally friendly materials, especially the recycling of plastics. In addition to Nike, adidas announced in 2018 that it plans to completely replace new plastics with recycled plastics by 2024. The reason why the plan takes a few years to transition is that the cost of recycled plastic is 10% -20% higher than that of new plastic, but as the technology matures, the impact of cost will become smaller and smaller. In 2018, 50% of the products sold by adidas used recycled plastics. The polyester fiber component was used for the production of sports T-shirts and sports shoes due to its light weight and quick-drying.

Among the adidas products, the more common environmentally friendly fabric is Parley Ocean Plastic, whose raw material is plastic waste recovered from beaches, remote islands, and coastal communities. Adidas uses the material labeled Parley series. In 2016, adidas launched the first shoe made from this fabric, and later used this fabric to make uniforms for Real Madrid and Bayern Munich teams. In addition, the adidas by Stella McCartney product line with the theme of sustainability also makes extensive use of this fabric.

In 2019, adidas also launched a fully recyclable sneaker-Futurecraft Loop. adidas claims that the sneaker is "reproduced", and consumers only need to return it to adidas for disassembly and reconstruction to get a new pair of sneakers. Under normal circumstances, sports shoes contain complex mixed materials and adhesives, which prevents it from being completely recycled. Adidas said that each part of the Futurecraft Loop is made of reusable TPU material, and through a glue-free technology, the raw materials are spun into yarns, knitted, fixed and welded to shoes, making the model Shoes can be completely disassembled and used.

Fully recyclable products seem to be a long-term environmental goal for adidas. Eric Liedtke, member of adidas' executive board responsible for global brands, said: "In the future, our mission will be to end the concept of 'waste' and improve the environment we live on. We embrace this dream and hope that you can wear the same pair of shoes again and again. "

In fact, not only the Nike and adidas brands, other sports brands are also very active in terms of sustainability. Recently, Puma and First Mile, a recycling organization that supports poor communities, have launched a sustainable series of products that use waste plastic bottles as a raw material; Converse has launched the Renew Denim series, which uses recycled jeans as upper materials; Reebok has launched a plant The produced sports shoes use eucalyptus, algae foam rubber and other raw materials; as well as emerging shoe brands such as Allbirds and Rothy's, they also use sustainable fashion as the brand concept for product design and innovation.

According to a report released by the global fashion search platform Lyst, in early 2020, consumers ’search for sustainable fashion will increase by 75% year-on-year, and searches for sustainable and recycled sports shoes will also continue to increase. Doubled year-on-year. Lyst expects that the concept of sustainable fashion will continue to heat up in 2020.

At the same time, sports brands will face more pressure from environmental protection. Now the brand's solutions are largely based on recyclable materials, but dyeing water, material processing, logistics and transportation, and product packaging will still lead Ignoring environmental issues, the future of sustainable development still has a long way to go.