This adidas Sneaker is 100% Made from Recycled Old Shoes
Brands have been hard at work, embracing the concept of a circular economy. We recently wrote about Nike’s Move to Zero initiative, as well as its renewable energy distribution centre. And not to be left out, adidas has followed their Parley for the Oceans project by building a sneaker from scratch with one goal in mind: it must be able to be ground down when it's old and recycled into a brand new pair, with zero waste.
Called the ‘Futurecraft.Loop’, the project started by sending 200 of these special running shoes to testers, only to be sent back once they were well worn or ‘beat’. Once retuned, The Three Stripes took the worn sneakers and ground them into TPU pellets, which would be used to make a new pair of the same style. adidas Running footwear developer Amanda Verbeck explained, “We said to them: here are the shoes, go away, do what you want to do with them and then give them back to us. Yes, give them back.” 
Next, adidas creates the new pair of running shoes from 100% recycled shoe materials. It feature a one piece upper and a new blue colourway. And the best part? It's even recyclable for the next generation! 
Traditionally, for sportswear brands like adidas, innovation would be driven by performance, and the pursuit of making shoes lighter, more comfortable, or more supportive. Projects like the Futurecraft.Loop mark a shift in this thinking, whereby innovation is driven by the need for sustainability. adidas’ thinking is not to take pre-existing products and make them more sustainable, but rather to create sustainable products from scratch. 
adidas can’t even tell us how the Futurecraft.Loop sneakers will cost, or how many times they can be recycled, but the commercial launch is planned for Spring/Sumer 2021. No news on any local releases either but hopefully closer to the time.
See the short documentary below for more info!