Adidas has partnered with ocean conservationist group Parley to create a new shoe made from recycled ocean trash. Three new shoes under their Ultraboost Shoe line will be released May 11, created from ocean debris. Adidas has come up with a way to take plastic waste found in the ocean, turn it into fibers and use them to make sneakers (really cool ones for that matter!).
Parley is a collaborative group that uses the creativity of artists, musicians and brands to come up with new ways to eliminate trash from the ocean fast. According to The Washington Post, the World Economic Forum predicts that at the current rate, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. That’s a lot of plastic. Furthermore, Parley’s website explains that scientists believe that by 2025, all of the coral reef ecosystems will be dead. 2025 might sound far away, but it’s only seven years from now. Drastic measures need to be taken to fix this issue that poses a dire threat to the health of our bodies, the planet, and wildlife.
Parley is focused on making ocean conservation creative and lucrative. “We need to defend diversity on land and in the sea and we need solutions, and these solutions can only be realized by harnessing the imaginative side of human culture – the arts… To succeed, we need to find ways to synchronize the economic system of humankind with the ecosystem of nature. And make environmental protection fiscally lucrative for pacesetting major companies.”
Parley teamed up with Adidas to create a new fiber, which have been used for shoes as well as sports jerseys. Each shoe created by Adidas is made from about 11 recycled plastic water bottles from the ocean. The sole, laces and sock liner are all made from recycled material.
Adidas has also recently switched to paper instead of plastic bags, which has eliminated 70 million plastic bags. Adidas wrote, “We are working together with Parley to prevent plastic from entering our oceans and to transform it into high-performance sportswear. Spinning the problem into a solution. The threat into thread. #AdidasParley.”
Check out Adidas’ new line of shoes on May 11 and spread the word about Parley. Adidas is hoping to make 1 million sneakers made from recycled ocean debris in 2018 alone.
Images courtesy of Adidas.