There’s a whole lot of trash piling up in the world.
In fact, according to the data, there are more than 3.5 million tons of garbage being produced a day, with the number growing. With the global apparel retail market (footwear and jewelry included) worth roughly $2 trillion in retail sales per year, it’d be an understatement to say that there are a lot of clothes and shoes being bought. As this number increases, so does the pile of deadstock sent to the landfill.
This is Trash: Nike’s Space Hippie Collection
More and more sneaker brands are stepping up to be more sustainable and prevent excess waste from piling up. Among them, Nike has been a huge advocate for building a cleaner world, placing great importance in fighting to reduce waste. In an attempt to demonstrate recycle and reuse what would’ve otherwise been simply trash, the brand has recently released the Space Hippie collection.
According to the brand, these sneakers have the lowest carbon footprint score for any Nike sneakers out there and were made using the scraps from the cutting room floor. According to Nike, the Flyknit yarn used to make the shoe is at least 85% rPoly, which is made from recycled plastic water bottles, T-shirt yarns, and ZoomX foam and rubber
The collection releases four minimalist silhouettes, each with a naming convention as simple as their aesthetic design. Playing to the whole futuristic, space-theme, the collection includes a low-top, mid, and high-top shoe for men, as well as an exclusive women’s low-top. Each with their own grey palette, the sneakers have a soft, yet sturdy space-military aesthetic.
Although these silhouettes are a recent release, Nike has actually been a key player in sustainability in sneakers for the last few years. As a matter of fact, in 2018, Nike received recognition by Textile Exchange for the most usage of recycled polyester, achieving this eco-friendly status for the sixth year in a row. Moreover, for the last eight years (2010-2018), the company has been turning 6.4 billion plastic water bottles into recycled footwear.
As Seana Hannah, the VP of Sustainable Innovation at Nike stated in regards to moving toward sustainability:
“We must think about the entire process: how we design it, how we make it, how we use it, how we reuse it, and how we cut out waste at every step. These are the fundamentals of a circular mindset that inform best practices.”
Other Brands Making Moves in Sustainability
Over the past few years, with more brands like Allbirds coming out in the push of sustainability, bigger sneaker brands have also begun to make the move into creating more sustainability, eco-friendly shoes.
Adidas
Without a doubt, Adidas has been at the forefront of sustainability for as long as people can remember out of the most popular sneaker brands. With a long history of being in the limelight for sustainability, the brand has even collaborated with the environmental organization Parley for the Oceans since 2015.
Since then, Adidas has created sneakers that use yarn from recycled ocean plastic and deep-sea gill nets. Making them both stylish and sustainable, Adidas produced more than 11 million pairs of these sneakers in 2019 (while only making 5 million in 2017-2018). They’ve also recently established plans for FUTURECRAFT.LOOP, which is the first fully recyclable running shoe, planning its release next year.
Reebok
Converse
The classic Chuck Taylor All-Star Converse has also joined the sustainability initiative, as they aim to “create [their] most sustainable sneakers yet” with the Converse Renew line. Made of 100% recycled plastic bottles for its canvas upper, the brand collaborated with Beyond Retro to recycle discarded jeans.
Growing Consumption and Pollution
With the boom of e-commerce, clothing and footwear consumption has only increased, wherein 2018 alone, the sale of fashion apparel, footwear, and accessories was estimated to reach $102 billion USD (for the US retail e-commerce revenue). This figure is projected to grow to $146 billion USD by 2023. Looking even closer than that, by 2021, it’s estimated that production for the apparel market will be expected to increase by 13%. When it comes to the countries that consume the most in this area, China and the US topped the ranks (as seen in the figure below).
As sales go up, so does consumption, and in turn pollution. According to some reports, average US consumers throw away as much trash that is equal to their body weight – every month. Without tackling this issue of mass consumption and pollution head-on, experts expect the aforementioned 3.5 million tons to reach 11 million tons a day by the end of the century.
The Future of Cleaner Sneakers
While sustainability in sneakers is important and impactful for the environment, there is still a long way to go until this movement has materialized into something more mainstream. Sadly, the greatest challenge is in using more sustainable materials to build shoes that are both beautiful and functional.
No matter how sustainable sneakers are, customers ultimately buy what has massive hype, appeal, and most importantly function. Sustainability, oftentimes, is an afterthought.
Compared to many other industries, sneaker brands are doing their part to make that change. Releases like the Nike Space Hippie 02 ‘This is Trash – Hyper Crimson’ or the Parley Oceans x Adidas Ultraboost DNA ‘Core Black’ are just a few of the recent examples of the big brands moving in the right direction. The rest is up to us, the consumers, to start shopping more responsibly.
