To coincide with the announcement that it will aim to produce eleven million pairs of footwear incorporating recycled plastic in 2019, Adidas has collaborated with designer Simone Post and German recycling innovator I:CO to create novel flooring for the sportswear giant’s Paris flagship Champs-Élysées store. As part of the endeavour, post-consumer Adidas trainers were recycled by I:CO into pellets which Post then utilised as the raw material for a rug which she designed featuring references to the sportswear firm’s famous stripes throughout.
Adidas invited Simone Post, Director of her own eponymous design studio, to design a rug made from post-consumer sport shoes as part of the ‘Stripped Down Stripes’ project. The collaboration, it is hoped, can show the potential for footwear – which is perhaps sent to landfill more than any other type of garment due to the difficulties associated with its recycling – to find a new purpose once consumers bring its primary use phase to an end. Having produced around five million pairs of footwear made using recycled plastic in 2018, Adidas is seeking to more than double this in 2019.
This, however, is nowhere near the limit of its ambitions. “Sustainability at Adidas goes far beyond recycled plastic,” noted Executive Board Member Gil Steyaert, who is responsible for global operations.
“We also continue to improve our environmental performance during the manufacturing of our products. This includes the use of sustainable materials, the reduction of CO2 emissions and waste prevention. In 2018 alone, we saved more than 40 tonnes of plastic waste in our offices, retail stores, warehouses and distribution centres worldwide and replaced it with more sustainable solutions.”
In a similar vein to its work with Adidas, I:CO has recently teamed up with another sporting goods company, Asics, to implement a recycling programme which enables the reuse of the firm’s apparel which is often discarded after marathons.
