French advertising body agrees that Adidas has stretched its sustainability claims

The ARPP, a non-governmental association for the self-regulation of advertising in France, has sided with a consumer against Adidas. The consumer contends that the German brand’s claims made earlier this year with regard to both the recycled content of its Stan Smith Forever shoes and the extent to which the purchase of the shoes can relieve the problem of plastic waste in the environment did not align with the ARPP’s policy on sustainability claims in advertising. Adidas said that at least 50 percent of each shoe is made of recycled material, but in fact the figure applies only to the upper. The material in question is proprietary and called Primegreen. The customer objected also to the placement beside the Adidas logo of another logo reading “End plastic waste” and to the image of a Stan Smith shoe on a plastic drinking bottle. A jury concluded: “The plastic used to make the shoe may come from discarded plastic waste, but this does not make that plastic recyclable. Therefore, at the end of its life, the shoe will add to the mass of non-recycled plastic waste.”