Adidas Unveils 100% Biodegradable Trainers

adidas has unveiled a new shoe made using Biosteel fibre – a replication of natural silk – at the Biofabricate Conference in New York.

The adidas Futurecraft Biofabric prototype shoe features an upper made from 100% Biosteel fibre, a nature-based and completely biodegradable high-performance fibre, developed by the German biotech company AMSilk.

The material offers a combination of properties that are crucial in performance, such as being 15% lighter in weight than conventional synthetic fibres as well as having the potential to be the strongest fully natural material available.

In addition, Biosteel fibre also provides a far more sustainable offering, with it being 100% biodegradable in a fully natural process.

The shoe was unveiled at the Biofabricate Conference in New York as adidas and AMSilk announced a partnership that will explore the use of Biosteel fibre in performance products on a larger scale.

James Carnes, vice president of strategy creation at adidas said: “In a year of ground-breaking innovations from adidas, the announcement of our partnership with AMSilk – and the unveiling of the adidas Futurecraft Biofabric shoe – is another step in our commitment to redefining the sports industry.

“This concept represents premium innovation. By using Biosteel fibre in our products, we have achieved an unrivalled level of sustainability. We are moving beyond closed loop and into an infinite loop – or even no loop at all. This is a pioneering stride forward beyond sustainability into a new territory of bionic innovation.”

Jens Klein, CEO of AMSilk said: “The sports shoes which have been developed together with adidas are the first products worldwide with a high-performance material made of nature-identical silk biopolymers.

“With this development we are setting new standards regarding the functionality of renewable textiles.”