Cambridge, MA. (June 13, 2025) – Blumaka founder Stuart Jenkins is set to share findings at The Footwear Collective Annual Summit 2025, validating the company’s innovative process for converting used athletic shoe foam into high-performance footwear components such as insoles and midsoles. The summit is being held today at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA.

A new report from Heeluxe, a leading independent footwear performance lab, has confirmed that Blumaka’s recycled and circular foam insole technology, developed in partnership with Sneaker Impact,  demonstrates that a high level of performance can be achieved using upcycled and circular materials.

“This isn’t just a theory or a lab experiment—it’s real, it’s proven, and it’s scalable,” said Jenkins. “Through our work with Sneaker Impact, we’ve demonstrated that shoe foam waste can be transformed into a high-quality raw material for footwear components, produced at scale and ready for immediate adoption. This technology can support the production of millions of pairs in 2026 and beyond, giving footwear brands a clear path to revolutionize their sustainability practices. Sending shoes to landfills or burning foam waste is no longer an inevitable reality—it’s now a choice to pollute.”

At the summit, Jenkins will not only address the Heeluxe findings but also invite the footwear industry to commit to using recycled materials in their future footwear collections.

Key findings from the Heeluxe report include:

  • Foam from used running shoes can be effectively recycled into high-performance insole material.
  • A blend of 90 percent post-consumer and 10 percent post-industrial foam performed nearly identically to 100 percent post-industrial ETPU (expanded thermoplastic polyurethane).
  • Even 100 percent post-consumer foam outperformed approximately 85 percent of the insoles in Heeluxe’s extensive database.
  • The recycled foam demonstrates excellent cushioning properties and resistance to compression over time.

Blumaka and Sneaker Impact have developed a system to harvest foam from used running shoes, previously destined for landfills, and reconstruct it into high-quality new footwear. This innovation works on existing production equipment using mass manufacturing methods, proving it is not just possible—it’s scalable, commercially viable, and cost-effective.

The Heeluxe study tested various combinations of post-consumer foam extracted from worn-out athletic shoes and post-industrial ETPU (recycled foam waste from shoe production). Notably, a 90/10 mixture of post-consumer and post-industrial foam produced some of the best cushioning results while having less compression. This demonstrates that high-quality footwear can be produced using the foam from old running shoes.

This breakthrough comes at a crucial time, as over 400 million pairs of shoes are discarded annually in the U.S. alone. Blumaka’s process could potentially convert this waste into 800 million high-performance insoles or 400 million midsoles for casual footwear.

“We’re excited to offer footwear brands a viable, circular solution that doesn’t compromise on performance. This technology allows us to create longer-lasting, well-cushioned shoes from what was once considered trash. At the Footwear Collective Annual Summit, I’ll be inviting industry leaders to join us in this sustainable revolution,” said Jenkins.