Adidas Is Introducing a Sneaker Made Entirely of Trash

We’re calling it now—ocean-trash sneakers will be the hottest footwear trend come 2016. Hot on the heels of Adidas and Kanye West's launch of Yeezy Boost 350 sneakers, the brand is taking their talent for innovation to new depths—quite literally. Yesterday in New York, the worlds of fashion, art, science, and technology came together to pack the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations, where Parley for the Oceans hosted a talk series devoted to the salvation of our waters. The topic of discussion was made clear by environmental activist Captain Paul Watson: “If the oceans die, we die.”

Many solutions for conserving ocean life were discussed during the conference, but it was Adidas's presentation that sent ripples of excitement through the crowd. The German sportswear brand’s Eric Liedtke took the stage to introduce a shoe composed of ocean waste, primarily recovered plastic and fishing gillnet. Its creation resulted from a partnership with Parley and research that they gathered from collecting trash that humans dump into the ocean.

So what do the sneakers look like? The prototype, which is designed to fall in line with the brand’s series of Boost performance shoes, boasts an appropriate sea foam blue color with patterned white lining and a clear, white sole. “We don’t compromise anything. The athlete gets what they need. The consumer gets what they need,” Liedtke told the crowd. “We’ll have that in production. This concept right in front of you, we plan to produce that and bring it to market for commercial uptake in March or February of 2016. So this is for real. This is not a plan. This is an action.”