Fashion for Good Partners adidas, Inditex, ON Running & More

Fashion for Good has teamed up with major footwear brands like adidas, Inditex, ON Running, PVH Corp., Reformation, Target, and Zalando to launch an exciting new initiative to transform footwear sustainability. This project builds on their expertise in innovation and collaboration, targeting critical areas across the shoe lifecycle to promote circularity.

“adidas has been a partner of Fashion for Good for over six years now. Through this partnership, we have collaborated on a number of different sustainable innovation initiatives that are benefitting the fashion industry. We want to build on this know-how and expand our focus into the Footwear space. Currently, there is a limited portfolio of low-impact materials which also meet the necessary performance requirements that are also scalable. We hope this initiative will help overcome some of these hurdles.”- Sigrid Buehrle, SVP Product Operations, Adidas

The initiative focuses on four major workstreams:

1. Materials: Finding and validating sustainable alternatives to current materials like TPU, PU, EVA, leather, and rubber.
2. Design: Creating and driving guidelines for circular design to build a sustainable infrastructure.
3. End of Use: Developing a data set on post-consumer footwear waste and exploring solutions for repair, disassembly, and recycling.
4. Traceability: Establishing a protocol for tracking footwear components to substantiate sustainability claims.

These workstreams aim to address the complex challenges of footwear sustainability, particularly the high number of components in shoes and the low recycling rates leading to large amounts of discarded footwear ending up in landfills.

Fashion for Good plans to expand its current projects, like the Fast Feet Grinded pilot, which focuses on recycling footwear. Fashion for Good will spearhead efforts to develop and implement these sustainable practices by collaborating with its partners.

"Fashion for Good and our corporate partners, including adidas, recognize the urgent need to accelerate innovation in footwear sustainability. Over the past seven years, we have consistently broken norms across various segments and are now leveraging our expertise to radically reimagine footwear. By doubling down on our efforts, we aim to drive circularity and validate sustainable solutions in a segment ripe for disruption." - Katrin Ley, Managing Director, Fashion for Good

Fashion for Good seeks breakthrough sustainable solutions in the footwear sector that maintain performance and durability. If you have relevant technology, whether an innovator, university, or established company, Fashion for Good invites enterprises to apply by 20th September 2024.

Brands, manufacturers, and ecosystem partners interested in learning more or getting involved can contact us at: projects@fashionforgood.com. For more information and to get involved, visit Fashion for Good.