Shares in Zotefoams, a leader in cellular material technology, were up by 12.9% this morning as the firm announced it has inked a strategic partnership to develop footwear technology and supply materials for US sportswear giant NIKE.

The UK company, which is headquartered in Croydon with additional manufacturing sites in Kentucky, Oklahoma and Massachusetts in the US and in China’s Jiangsu Province, uses a manufacturing process with environmentally-friendly nitrogen expansion to produce lightweight Azote polyolefin and Zotek high-performance foams. It also uses its own cellular materials to manufacture T-Fit advanced insulation.

Under its new partnership with Nike, Zotefoams will supply high-performance foam materials exclusively to Nike, within the footwear industry. The foams, which are designed for footwear, can be formulated to specific customer needs and are superior in performance, consistency, quality and purity to foams produced by other methods.

Through the partnership, Zotefoams will work with Nike to develop and manufacture foam innovations to bring to market high-performance athletic product.