The Running Shoe Leading the Race to Sustainability

Here’s an article that relates to what we were talking about in our Nike presentation last week. I thought this was a good article because it allows us to compare what different shoe companies are doing to become green and what they are emphasizing on. A company by the name of Brooks who is at the forefront of sustainability has been working to improve its products’ environmental impact for many years now. They are focused on packaging, reducing non-renewable materials, increasing durability, and maximizing their end of life outcomes. Brooks has launched their Green Silence shoe. To give some statistics on the shoe, it is made from 75% post-consumer recycled shoes material, has 100% recycled packaging (90% is post-consumer), the shoe laces are 100% post-consumer recycled, they use water-based adhesives, all dyes and colorants are non-toxic, and there are half as many parts as to comparable shoes. They’ve also introduced the biodegradable BioMoGo midsole, which they use in many of their shoes. The name of their environmental principles is “360 degree sustainability”. Their ideas relate to such concepts as cradle to cradle, green chemistry, and design for environment. In the future they hope to improve upon their concept of 360 degree sustainability and they wish that all companies will be winners in the race to become sustainable.

Here's the link
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/03/01/running-shoe-leading-race-sustainability?page=0%2C2