Adidas and Allbirds Reveal Sustainability-Focused Partnership With Plans to Make an Athletic Shoe
Adidas and Allbirds are immersed in their own sustainability initiatives. And now, the two powerhouse footwear companies have come together in an effort to bring about a greener future.
Today, Adidas and Allbirds revealed a partnership that will open each other’s suite of sustainability-focused innovations. The goals, the companies said, are to innovate manufacturing and supply chain processes and to explore renewable material resources.
With this, both Adidas and Allbirds believe they can create the lowest carbon footprint ever recorded for a sport performance shoe.
“Our brands don’t want to just participate in the sustainability conversation, we want to continue being catalysts and creators of substantial improvement,” Adidas VP of brand strategy James Carnes said in a statement. “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.”
In a statement, Adidas and Allbirds revealed this project will eventually yield an athletic shoe that both meets the performance standards of the Three Stripes with a carbon footprint that’s analyzed using the carbon emissions measuring life cycle assessment tool of Allbirds.
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“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,” Allbirds co-CEO Tim Brown said in a statement. “This is a problem that won’t be solved by one company alone.”
To create a product with the lowest possible carbon footprint, Adidas and Allbirds said they will explore supply chain innovations such as material choices, manufacturing facilities and transportation methods that utilize renewable energy and fuels. In a statement, the companies stated the average running shoe has a carbon footprint of approximately 13.6 kg of carbon dioxide.
“There is an urgent need to reduce our global carbon number, and this mission is bigger than just Allbirds or Adidas,” Brown said in a statement. “Whether we realize it or not this is a race that we are all running together as a planet and it is one that trumps the day-to-day competition of individual companies. I am hopeful that this partnership will be an example for others to follow as we pursue a more sustainable, net zero carbon future.”
