Adidas and Allbirds announced a partnership that seeks to “open the doors to each other’s suite of sustainable innovations” in an attempt to create a shoe with the “lowest carbon footprint ever recorded.” This marks the first time in Adidas’ history in which the brand has collaborated with another footwear brand not under its umbrella.
“Our brands don’t want to just participate in the sustainability conversation, we want to continue being catalysts and creators of substantial improvement,” said James Carnes, VP of Adidas Brand Strategy, in a press release. “The recent progress that our brands have made in the name of sustainable innovation has created the perfect momentum for this partnership to influence industry practices forever.”
“Our great hope is that this partnership will catalyze other people to share both their best ideas and research so that we can work together in the fight to live more sustainably,” says Tim Brown, co-CEO of Allbirds. “This is a problem that won’t be solved by one company alone.”
The press release announcing this collaboration quoted a study published in the “Journal of Cleaner Production” in 2013 claiming that the average running shoe has a carbon footprint of about 13.6 kilograms of CO2, and outlined the two companies’ joint intention to “set a new industry standard” by lowering that number together.
Photo courtesy Adidas
