Addressing the rising demand for more sustainable insole solutions from its customers, U.S. brand OrthoLite is putting its plans announced earlier this year into action, introducing two new sole technologies that elevate the total eco content of the insoles to 57 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The new soles, called HybridPlus-Bio and HybridPlus-Recycled, have been developed in the framework of Ortholite’s zero-waste initiative. While the “recycled” soles are made with a 50 percent share of recycled rubber powder and recycled PU foam, the “bio” soles have 43 percent recycled production waste foam, 7 percent recycled rubber and 7 percent bio-oil derived from castor oil as sustainable ingredients.
Ortholite has been audited by Higg since 2019. It has invested in an in-house recycling facility to capture and repurpose all waste material to close the loop on post-production waste. The company’s open-cell foam technology is found in shoes across all categories by brands such as Adidas, Asics, Converse, Danner, Ecco, Salomon, Nike, Reebok, Sanuk, Timberland, Toms, Wolverine and Vans. Ortholite produces roughly 500 million soles yearly.
