Ever heard of biodegradable shoes? Adidas now has them.
Called the Adidas Futurecraft Biofabric, this shoe has a league of its own in terms of its material properties. The shoe has an upper which is biodegradable, being able to break down in under 36 hours after application of a special enzyme from a small packet. This can be done at the shoe owner’s sink.
Source: Adidas
It is made with Biosteel, an ultrastrong yet lightweight material manufactured by biotech company AMSilk. The upper has the same proteins that spiders use to make their silk. Just imagine how strong the material is.
Source: Adidas
According to Adidas, the material is 15% lighter than traditional synthetic fibers. But that’s only exclusive to the upper – the Futurecraft’s sole is non-biodegradable, made from the same TPU plastic foam found in Adidas’ UltraBoost shoes.
This somehow contributes to the conventional ending of shoes at the landfill, which sit for hundreds of years. To the very least, this shoe produces less waste compared to normal sneakers in case the shoe owners choose to break them down.
AMSilk’s CEO, Jens Klein, told Business Insider, “Crude oil [which is used to make traditional fibers for shoes] is an exhaustive resources. At some point, we will run out, though we don’t know when,” AMSilk’s CEO, Jens Klein, tells Business Insider. “And either you have to burn them [your shoes], or they stay with us for hundreds of years.”
Source: Adidas
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Futurecraft Biofabric was revealed at the Biofabricate fabrics conference in late 2016, with an announcement that Adidas will release the biodegradable shoes by early 2018 for an unknown price so far.
“There’s going to be a premium price to it, but it will still be affordable to normal consumers,” Klein added.
Source: Business Insider
