Earlier this year, Adidas and Parley for the Oceans teamed up to create a shoe made of deep-sea gill nets and other waste found in the ocean. It was a pretty rad looking shoe from the German sportswear brand that I could have imagined Aquaman wearing to the gym, or for a beach clean up (I don’t really remember Aquaman having any cool powers that made any sense other than thinking he just did beach clean ups with his free time). The nets themselves were collected by Sea Shepherd, who had spent over 100 days tracking and chasing illegal poaching vessels off the coast of West Africa. So long story short, these were badass shoes.
Adidas and Parley for the Oceans decided to give it one more go, adding in the little twist of producing this prototype with 3D-printing. The prototype was a project the partners carried out for COP21 in Paris to demonstrate how the entire industry can rethink design and help stop ocean plastic pollution.
When held side by side with the previous prototype I can’t say I picture Aquaman sporting the newer model. These look like actual shoes, as opposed to the futuristic kicks from before that actually appeared to have come straight out of the ocean. I was also a tad partial to the part where the previous shoes’ materials came from pirate ships. I realize the factually correct term was “illegal poaching vessels,” but had I owned a pair of these shoes I certainly would stick with the pirate shoe angle anyway. So, to each their own. But props to Adidas and Parley nonetheless. It’s all part of a corporate wide effort from Adidas to spark industrywide sustainable practices. Since partnering with Parley for the Oceans they’ve started enrolling employees in Parley Ocean School, where they learn sustainable practices that can be applied to day to day life as well as their own industry. And by the end of Q1 2016, the Adidas group will have entirely phased out the use of plastic bags in their retail stores.
