German sportswear giant Adidas has surpassed its goal to create 1m pairs of its first mass production running shoe made from up-cycled marine plastic, having sold 1m shoes made out of ocean plastic last year.
The group has been working with sustainability group Parley for the Oceans since April 2015. With the goal of developing and supporting new technologies to up-cycle ocean plastic debris, the pair have worked on turning ocean plastic into technical yarn fibres that can be used for performance products.
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In November 2016, Adidas committed to creating 1m pairs of the new UltraBoost shoes made with Parley Ocean Plastic by end of 2017.
Adidas commits to 1m pairs of ocean waste running shoes
Now, the group has surpassed this goal, with CEO Kasper Rorsted telling CNBC last week Adidas sold 1m shoes made out of ocean plastic last year.
Featuring a Primeknit upper made from a mix of Ocean Plastic, created from plastic waste retrieved by Parley coastal interception and clean-up operations in the Maldives (95%), and recycled polyester (5%), each pair of the UltraBoost Uncaged Parley reuses 11 plastic bottles.
The shoe’s laces, heel cap base material, heel webbing, heel lining and the sock-liner cover are also made with recycled materials.
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By GlobalDataAdidas also released Parley editions of UltraBoost, UltraBoost X, and UltraBoost Uncaged in May of last year in a bid to make Adidas x Parley footwear more readily available to consumers around the world.
Last week, the sportswear giant forecast strong growth in the year ahead, and upped its 2020 profitability target on the back of what Rorsted called a “strong” year.
Adidas ups 2020 profit target following “strong” FY
