This year, for the first time, more than half of the polyester in Adidas products will derive from recycled plastic waste. If things stay on track, moreover, by 2024 Adidas will be using recycled polyester exclusively whenever it is applicable. Adidas has been working on a number of other sustainability initiatives as well.
This year, the German company expects to raise the number of shoes produced with plastic waste collected on coasts from last year’s 11 million pairs to a record 15 to 20 million pairs. It produced one million such pairs in 2017 and five million the next year. A further stage in its plans is the introduction of whole new product categories founded on sustainability criteria.
Adidas’ first fully recyclable running shoe, the Futurecraft Loop, has been in prototype since 2019. Every component down to the laces is made from the same recyclable material, and the whole is fused together without glue. Last year, 200 pairs were tested by 200 athletes and returned to Adidas, which recycled them and produced a second generation, which is now once again on the athletes’ feet. The Futurecraft Loop running shoe should make its debut in 2021.
Meanwhile, the group’s outdoor unit, Adidas Terrex, will show its first 100 percent recyclable Futurecraft Loop anorak at the Ispo Munich fair in the next days. The garment, which has earned an Ispo Gold Award, also features the new Parley x Primaloft insulation. Adidas has also embedded Parley upcycled material in a Myshelter Parley rain jacket, a Free Hiker Parley hiking boot and Terrex Two Ultra Parley trail-running shoes.
Adidas established its much-publicized partnership with the environmental group Parley for the Oceans in 2015. Adidas x Parley products are made with plastic waste collected from coasts. Together, they organize the annual Run for the Oceans, whose 50 events worldwide drew 2.2 million runners last year and resulted in $1.5 million in donations to Parley for children’s educational projects in developing countries.
A similar experiment in bio-fabricated materials is the tennis dress that Adidas has developed jointly with Stella McCartney. Made of cellulose and protein, the dress was introduced before last year’s Wimbledon tournament. Meanwhile, Reebok has been using renewable materials such as cotton, corn, algae and natural rubber to produce the Reebok Cotton + Corn and Reebok Forever Floatride Grow shoes. Adidas has been obtaining sustainably produced cotton mainly from the Better Cotton Initiative since 2018.
At the retail end of its business, Adidas introduced the “Infinite Play” program last year. Consumers in the U.K. can now return still-functional Adidas footwear or apparel to a partner, Stuffstr, by using the Adidas app. They then receive a voucher for the company’s online store. Returned products are either resold or recycled.
Adidas eliminated plastic bags from its stores in 2016, and its other sites have since followed suit, eliminating about 40 tons of plastic waste per year. From 2021, distribution transport will be using recycled packaging, and a recycling loop for transport packaging is being tested in Spain within the framework of the “Fashion for Good” platform.
As a signatory to the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, Adidas has pledged to have reduced its greenhouse-gas emissions – from its own and its suppliers’ activities – by 30 percent by 2030 as compared to 2017 levels. It has also pledged to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The company currently draws almost all its electricity from renewable sources.
Since 2000, Adidas has ranked best in the sporting goods industry in terms of environmental and social contribution, based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
