Look what Adidas made out of trash pulled from the ocean

By Trevor Mogg Published July 9, 2015

Adidas has just made a pair of sneakers using ocean-recovered garbage.

If you didn’t already know it, the oceans are indeed teeming with trash. Everything from consumer plastics to paper to discarded fishing gear litters the seas, polluting the water and threatening wildlife.

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Adidas is hoping that its new kicks, unveiled earlier this month, will help to highlight the ocean-based environmental issue and promote efforts to get on top of it.

The concept shoe is the result of a collaboration between the German sportswear company and Parley for the Oceans, a New York-based ocean conservation group.

According to Adidas, the unique shoe upper is made “entirely of yarns and filaments reclaimed and recycled from ocean waste.” It’s actually knitted using a method Adidas has been developing for a while and that’s already led to a range of lightweight Primeknit footwear from the company.

Speaking to FastCompany about the design, Adidas board member Eric Liedtke said, “Knitting in general eliminates waste, because you don’t have to cut out the patterns like on traditional footwear,” adding, “We use what we need for the shoe and waste nothing.”

Adidas says it has no plans to launch the footwear commercially but adds that it gives consumers a peek at the kind of products and designs – made with ocean-recovered plastics – that it plans to launch before the end of the year.

Liedtke said its work with Parley forms part of its continued sustainability efforts and allows the company to “tap into new areas and create innovative materials and products for our athletes.”

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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