Advertisement

Allbirds and Adidas Will Raffle 100 Pairs of Their Sustainable Shoe Before Releasing 10,000 Pairs This Fall

One year ago, Allbirds and Adidas announced a partnership that saw both brands open up their materials, supply chains and innovations to each other, and said it would eventually yield a collaborative sneaker. Today, the to brands revealed their joint sustainability-focused shoe.

The two footwear powerhouses offered the first look at the Futurecraft.Footprint, which is the first shoe to come from the partnership. The brands explained that each pair has a carbon footprint of 2.94kg CO2e, was created with 63% less emissions and said it “represents a personal best for both brands” in their journeys to make a performance running shoe with no carbon footprint.

More from Footwear News

“Our partnership with Allbirds is a beacon of what can happen when competing brands from the same industry see the possibilities in coming together to design,” Adidas executive board member of global brands Brian Grevy said in a statement. “By truly co-creating and providing each other with open access to knowledge and resources — such as Allbirds’ knowledge of carbon calculation and experience with natural materials, and Adidas’ capabilities in manufacturing and performance footwear — this is a call to action for other brands, and a milestone in the sports industry achieving carbon neutrality.”

In a statement, Allbirds and Adidas revealed this shoe took less than one year to complete — which included working together via digital means across multiple time zones — and saw the brands reimagining the materials, manufacturing techniques and packaging to hit their low carbon footprint without sacrificing performance.

From a material perspective, the companies created a midsole compound reimagined with Allbirds SweetFoam featuring 18% bio-based sugarcane content that’s tested to the same performance standards as Adidas Lightstrike. (On the midsole, the companies printed the full-lifecycle CO2 footprint.) Also, the uppers are built with 70% recycled polyester and 30% natural Tencel (a material made from wood pulp), the outsoles are made with 10% natural rubber, and both the laces and lining are made with 100% recycled polyester.

“We believe that the challenge of solving climate change is the problem of our generation and solving it will not be done alone. We need to find new business models, new innovations and new ways of working together,” Allbirds co-founder & co-CEO Tim Brown said in a statement. “Our partnership with adidas is an example of that. Over the past year, our two teams have raced as one to create a shoe as close to zero carbon emissions as we could possibly achieve. The results are an exciting step forward, and hopefully, an example for others to follow.”

For the initial launch, 100 pairs of the Allbirds x Adidas Futurecraft.Footprint shoe will release this month via raffle to Adidas Creators Club members. Then, there will be a drop of 10,000 pairs in the fall, followed by a broader release in spring ’22.

Sign up for FN's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.