Comment In 2002, agitprop magazine AdBusters released a manifesto for their new, 100% recycled tennis shoe.
Dubbed the “Blackspot”, it was to be the first “earth-friendly, anti-sweatshop and cruelty-free” sneaker.
The shoe was created from recycled tire, vegan leather, and black hemp. It seemed like such a revolutionary idea at the time that AdBusters marketed it as the anti-Nike “Unswoosher”.
Adbusters' Blackspot Unswoosher
Well, the company was dead wrong about killing Nike — but Adbusters was dead on in its design philosophy.
With so many valuable materials heading to the landfill each year, why not put them to good use?
Now, nearly every major footwear company is coming out with an earth-friendly product line.
Timberland is the latest shoe maker to jump on the green bandwagon. Their new Earthkeepers 2.0 line are actually designed for disassembly after their “first-life”. Customers are encouraged to drop them off at the local Timberland retailer:
To be recycled, Timberland® Earthkeepers™ 2.0 footwear will first be taken apart. The worn out Green Rubber soles made of 42% recycled rubber will be sent to the Green Rubber factory to be ground up and de-vulcanized, ready to be made into something new.
The leather uppers on returned Earthkeepers™ 2.0 footwear will be used to make new footwear at Timberland’s own factory in the Dominican Republic. Polyester components will be recycled into new polyester products at Teijin in Japan, the only company that currently recycles polyester chemically.
Not only is it a great way to be environmentally responsible, but it's a shrewd business move by Timberland to get those customers back into the store after their sneakers are worn out, when they'll inevitably need a new pair of shoes.
Timberland's Earthkeeper 2.0 Boatshoe
Let's take a look at how Timberland's new shoe stacks up to the competition.
As the self proclaimed “world leader of sustainable shoes”, Simple started their sustainability push in 2004 — when they "had an epiphany", which they share on their website:
When it comes to being planet-friendly in our industry, the status quo sucks. Nobody's playing nice with Mother Nature, and we're just as guilty. If we're going to change the world, shouldn't we start with ourselves?
The company's site details the sustainable materials used in Simple's footwear. To line the shoes, Simple uses post-consumer foam from carpet padding; the treads are formed from recycled inner tubes. And the laces? Polyethylene Terephthalate, better known as recycled plastic water bottles.
Perhaps the most whimsical material are the buttons fashioned from coconut husks: “We take the coconut shell and use it....because it's renewable and plentiful but no, it's not edible.”
Like the Blackspot, Simple also eschews leather in their line of vegan sneakers.
Simple's Hemp and Organic Cotton "Toemorrow"
And what about Nike, the reason AdBusters developed the Blackspot? Due to its immense size, Nike's carbon footprint has always been an issue with environmentalists. To mitigate that issue, Nike has started several programs over the years, most importantly the "Reuse-A-Shoe" program.
Like Timberland's new program, Reuse-A-Shoe asks customers to return their worn-out sneaks (they accept most sneakers, not only Nikes) to one of the specified drop-off locations. The shoes are separated into three parts: rubber from the outsole, foam from the midsole, and fabric from the shoe's upper half.
The materials are then introduced into the "Nike Grind", where they are ground into granulated materials, which are then used to create sports surfaces like basketball and tennis courts, playgrounds, and running tracks.
But it wasn't until 2008 that Nike unveiled the Trash Talk Shoe — the "first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste."
The only problem was that Nike limited the initial production run to a measly 5,000 pairs.
Steve Nash's Nike "Trash Talk"
And despite Nike's growing environmental awareness, a large cloud still hangs above the athletic gear giant's head in the form of widespread human rights abuses exposed in Nike factories in the 1990s. And socially responsible consumers often have a good memory for such indiscretions...
So thanks in part to Blackspot's threat to give unsustainable shoe companies "a swift kick in the brand", those socially responsible consumers now have plenty of options when it comes to sustainable footwear.
Be Well,
Jimmy
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