“one of the most under-reported success stories has to be that of Adidas and their collaboration with the pioneering non-profit Parley for the Oceans to tackle the problem of marine plastic waste”
The story begins with a limited edition sneaker drop of 7,000 pairs of shoes – each containing the equivalent of 11 plastic bottles worth of waste. Selling out instantly, the shoes represented a technological and design mike drop heard by sneakerheads and design fans around the world. The shoe upper was made from Parley Ocean Plastic, which is collected in coastal areas in the Maldives, as well as illegal deep-sea gillnets retrieved by Parley for the Oceans' partner organization Sea Shepherd.
Here's the best bit: this year Adidas has announced it intends to sell five million pairs of ocean plastic shoes - at an average retail price of around $220. This means the brand is set to make more than a billion dollars in revenue by trying to solve one of the world's biggest environmental problems. And not content with taking the Parley technology into an expansion into clothing, Adidas has announced that it intends to use 100% recycled polyester in all of its products (where solutions exist) by 2024 (Adidas makes 403 million pairs of shoes annually).