For more than 20 years, adidas has quietly and consistently worked to become a more sustainable brand. Company-wide ambitions聽include cutting in half the amount of water its apparel material suppliers use and phasing out the use of聽virgin plastic from all its products, stores, and offices around the globe by 2020. Adidas is also on target to cut its waste in half and trim its key suppliers鈥 energy consumption by 20 percent.
With these goals in mind, adidas has teamed up with Parley for the Oceans, a global network of creators, thinkers, and leaders from a variety of industries who have pulled聽together to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the ocean and collaborate on projects to聽end their destruction. Through their partnership, adidas is helping to keep plastic trash out of our oceans and then upcycling that waste to create high-performance apparel and footwear. At the same time, adidas鈥檚聽ZeroDye fabric initiative uses far less water, energy, and chemicals to manufacture the material for some of the company鈥檚 shoes. Christian Zwinger, design director of footwear for adidas鈥檚 outdoor-sports-focused Terrex line, says the program hits close to his team鈥檚 heart. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all outdoor athletes, and the environments we enjoy are our most precious training grounds. So it is important to figure out how to do less harm,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e know that positive change must happen step-by-step, and we know it will take many steps.鈥
What makes adidas鈥檚 efforts even more impressive is its overarching belief that making quality products is just as important as reducing waste and employing recycled materials. 鈥淢any assume sustainability is only about materials and processes,鈥 says Zwinger. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 also about quality, about making a product that we love because it performs well and ages well, that has a history with us, and that won鈥檛 fall apart and need to be replaced.鈥 Highlighted here are two of adidas Terrex鈥檚 many steps toward sustainability, which together are delivering high-performance gear that鈥檚 good for the planet.
Parley Ocean Plastic鈩
Adidas’s聽partnership with Parley聽launched in 2015 and works like this: First, Parley and its partner organizations聽head into the field to reclaim聽a portion of the millions of tons of plastic littering the world鈥檚 shorelines. Then adidas and Parley聽recycle聽it into apparel, shoes, and even clothing hangers. For Zwinger and the rest of the team working on the Terrex line, the raw material comes with a welcome learning curve. 鈥淭he recycled content in our shoes and clothes gets higher and higher every year as we learn how to reconstruct a product to use more and more recycled materials,鈥 he says. 鈥淯ltimately, the goal is to make a shoe from 100 percent recycled materials that can be shredded and recycled into new products.鈥
Wear it: This spring, you鈥檒l find Parley Ocean Plastic鈩 in , including聽shoes, tops, and shorts for men and women, including the Agravic Top (above). Later this fall, look for one of the most technical applications of this recycled plastic yet, the Terrex Parley 3-Layer Jacket. This lightweight waterproof jacket uses layers of breathable Climaproof fabric to keep you dry and comfortable and an outer shell made with plastic from the Parley collaboration.
ZeroDye Fabrics
Gear designed for nature should be as natural as possible, right? With adidas ZeroDye that sentiment becomes reality. “By leaving fibers in their natural color, our suppliers have a simpler process,” says Zwinger, “and we have a cleaner fabric with all the performance characteristics we want.” And, in the end, the consumer gets products that put less聽environmental strain on the planet without compromising聽functionality. ZeroDye debuted in 2014 in the Terrex line, and by聽skipping the dyeing process and using undyed polyester instead, adidas聽is able to cut back its water consumption.
Wear it: The Terrex聽Two Boas are the perfect marriage of sustainable materials and high-performance features. The outsoles are made with rubber from Continental, the tire company; a Boa closure provides a secure, customized fit; and the white uppers are cut from undyed fabric, providing a blank canvas for you to color with whatever terrain you run them through.