The Adidas Group is leading a three-year research project, Sport Infinity, to make sporting goods that can be repeatedly recycled, without any chemical adhesives or waste. Using an inexaustible super-material, they could be entirely broken down and remolded into new performance products. The project focuses on plastic-based football products, starting with shin guards, then balls and shoes.
Supported by funds from the European Union, Sport Infinity brings together Adidas and other academic and industrial stakeholders, to combine broken-down sports products with leftover materials from other industries. For example, future football boots could contain fibers of boots that scored World Cup goals, along with carbon used in aircraft manufacturing.
Started in June, the project involves nine other companies, including BASF, Kiska, Fill Gesellschaft, Hypercliq, Sportsmethod and Oechsler, as well as the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, the University of Leeds, Center for Technical Textiles (CTT) and the Association CETI (Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants). The partnership was initially dubbed the WRAP Consortium project, supported by the Commission's DG research, Industrial Technologies, Materials Unit.
Apart from the environmental implications, an advantage cited by Adidas is that the process adds to the scope for personalization by consumers. Ultimately it could even be envisaged to have automated recycling and customization stations, but that is most unlikely to be finalized in the timeframe of the current research project.
The Adidas Group's steady commitment and investments to reduce the environmental impact of production and get closer to consumers has been pushed forward with several innovative and collaborative projects in the recent months, particularly the plans to open a pilot speed factory in Germany and a partnership with Parley for the Oceans, to make apparel out of recycled ocean waste.
Separately, Adidas said last week that it was joining Microsoft, Sony and several other companies in the United Nations' Climate Neutral Now initiative. It was among the companies approached as “leading examples” in tackling climate change by measuring and striving to reduce their carbon footprint. The Adidas Group strives to achieve a carbon-neutral stage in its own operations and at its own sites by increasing energy efficiency, using energy with a lower carbon footprint and offsetting carbon where appropriate with approved schemes.
