Grow your sneakers and use them as compost: “Cotton + Corn”
By Jules Bricout
— May 12, 2017
Reebok has just proclaimed the launch of a new product innovation program: the organic shoe, which is biodegradable and can be used for composting.
As announced on April 4, the “Cotton + Corn” initiative is a program born from a partnership between Reebok and DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, a company specialized in organic materials.
The goal is to produce shoes from cotton and non-edible corn using a virtuous production cycle, since the sneakers will be biodegradable and can be used for compost.
“Cotton + Corn” takes into account all the steps in the product lifecycle, from organic-sourced production to final use as compost.
“Growing” sneakers
“At Reebok, we like to say that we grow shoes”, declares Bill McInnis, Manager of the Reebok Future team initiative. “The long-term goal is to create a full line of organic shoes than can be composted after use. This compost will help grow materials for the next line of shoes, since we wanted to take the entire cycle into account.”
Last November at the Biofabricate show, Adidas presented a shoe in biosteel, an organic fiber inspired by spider silk and biodegradable with the help of enzymes. Reebok will go one step further by proposing shoes made with organic materials and biodegradable without requiring additional treatment.
On the lookout for new materials in the sports industry
This project was inspired by Reebok’s “Be More Human” approach, where sustainability is a key element. The project is also part of a broader search by the sports industry for new materials, such as the biosteel fiber or recycling ocean plastic with the Parley NGO. Bill McInnis states that this initiative is only a beginning and hopes to extend this circular production method to several Reebok products.
We like: the search for new organic materials to limit the use of plastics and taking into account the entire product lifecycle.
We were inspired by: combined with shorter production and distribution circuits, the use of organic materials in the textile and sports industries would drastically reduce their ecological footprint.
#fashion #fashiontech #sustainable #organic #innovation
