Adidas, Inditex, Target and Zalando have joined forces with Fashion for Good on a new pilot program designed to encourage a more circular footwear industry.
According to the sustainable fashion company, the new program was created in partnership with recycling innovator FastFeetGrinded, which aims to test and validate the footwear recycling process and support the uptake of recycled materials in footwear.
Interestingly, FastFeetGrinded possesses the capability to deconstruct any type of pre- and post-consumer shoe inside its 43,000 sq.-ft. facility, breaking it down into its macro-components. These macro-components are then ground down into smaller high purity granulates which the company uses to create material streams for repurposed use.
Through this project specifically, Adidas and other partner companies will divert pre- and post-consumer footwear to FastFeetGrinded, which will then transform them into various new material granulates. The next step involves the recycler’s extensive network of supply chain partners, who will produce new products with the granulates, such as outsoles, midsoles, and flip flops.
Inside FastFeetGrinded’s facility.
Katrin Ley, managing director of Fashion for Good, said in a statement on Tuesday that this project will be the first in the footwear industry to understand the sustainable recycling technologies and infrastructures needed to accelerate the transition towards a circular future. “By fostering collaborative partnerships like this, where companies come together to share knowledge and validate innovation, we pave the way for scalable solutions,” Ley said.
“As a frontrunner in circular footwear, we will show the world the endless possibility with our raw material granulates,” Danny Pormes, CEO of FastFeetGrinded added in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Fashion for Good has worked with some of these retail partners. In April, Inditex joined Reformation and BestSeller to prototype a new material in their product lines developed by Kintra Fibers.
In 2018, Adidas and Zalando first teamed up with Fashion for Good to “accelerate and scale” sustainable innovation in the apparel industry.