Nike Designs Recyclable Shoes Made to Be Taken Apart
As we learn more about the true state of recycling in America, it’s become clear that some things recyclable in theory are less so in reality. This is why some companies are taking a deeper dive into ways to help enable the recyclability of their products.
It’s long been challenging to recycle items made of multiple materials, Hoka Shoes which means traditionally they’ve ended up in the garbage bin. One of these items is shoes, and a Wichita State study last year contends that, in America, some 300 million pairs per year are tossed in the trash and take an average of 30 to 40 years to decompose.
Nike, a leader in footwear innovation, has recently announced a new development that should make sneakers easier to recycle… and it starts with taking them apart.
The Nike Link and Link Axis shoes were developed using the company’s ISPA design philosophy. ISPA stands for Improvise, Scavenge, Protect, and Adapt and Nike says it “challenges creators to experiment, break molds and reimagine products.” In this case, the concept of shoe “disassembly” was incorporated into the Link’s design.
In the case of form following function, the ISPA team worked to create a shoe that emphasizes flexibility and durability while avoiding the kinds of bonds and adhesives that typically make shoes difficult to disassemble and recycle. The Link can instead be pulled apart into three distinct pieces, eliminating the need for energy-intensive shredding or manual breakdown processes. Teva Sandals Users still need to drop off the parts at their local Nike store, but they can do so knowing the shoes won’t require wasteful and ineffective recycling afterward.
Nike also says that removing traditional adhesives also takes some energy out of the sneaker construction process in the way of heating and cooling the bonds, meaning they’re more sustainably constructed as well.
According to Darryl Matthews, Nike’s VP of Catalyst Footwear Product Design, the company’s hope “is that these ideas and aesthetics become normalized, accelerating our ability to imagine how shoes will continue to evolve in the future.”
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