Courtesy of Adidas
The Adidas Futurecraft Loop sneaker, made out of 100% recycled material.
- Adidas is at the forefront of sustainable footwear design as the first retailer to develop a sneaker made with 100% recycled materials that is also fully recyclable, called the Futurecraft Loop.
- Business Insider sat down with Dharan Kirupanantham, senior manager of future technology innovation at Adidas, to learn more about the development process and the challenges of scaling such a product to get it into the hands of consumers.
- "The idea is that we want to democratize sustainability," Kirupanantham said. "Whatever we do, it may start with one shoe or 200 pairs of shoes, unless it's accessible, it's not really a sustainability effort."
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On any given day in the Future department at the Adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the team is hard at work on everything from engineering 3D-printed shoes and improving recycled material technology to designing footwear for astronauts.
Over the past several years, Adidas has solidified itself as a leader not only in product innovation, but also in sustainable design. Last month, the retailer launched the second generation of its Futurecraft Loop sneaker, the first-of-its-kind performance running shoe made from 100% recycled material that is also fully recyclable. The new model comes after the shoe first debuted in April and took seven years to perfect, according to Dharan Kirupanantham, senior manager of future technology innovation at Adidas.
For now, the futuristic shoe remains in beta mode as a limited distribution is being tested in major cities around the world. An anticipated public launch is slated for 2021. Part of the challenge, Kirupanantham said, has been developing the technology and procurement processes necessary to not only manufacture such a shoe, but also to scale it effectively.
"The idea is that we want to democratize sustainability," Kirupanantham told Business Insider. "Whatever we do, it may start with one shoe or 200 pairs of shoes, unless it's accessible, it's not really a sustainability effort."
We sat down with Kirupanantham during his recent visit to the Adidas New York office to learn more about his vision for innovation and sustainability at Adidas.
The following interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.
Business Insider: There's been quite a bit of buzz building around the Futurecraft Loop. What exactly is so special about this shoe?
Dharan Kirupanantham: The cool thing is it's one single material - most shoes typically use 12 to 15 different types of materials. One of the key elements is that the Futurecraft Loop contains no glue. We used a new manufacturing process to produce this, and in April the idea that we brought to the fray was we wanted to end plastic waste in our industry. Since then, we've been working hard to actually demonstrate that.
The second generation of Futurecraft continues the story and shows that we've actually been able to produce not just new products from old shoes, but also a high-performance running shoe. It's a running shoe that people can actually use.
Courtesy of Adidas
The Futurecraft Loop was designed for high-performance activities like running.
BI: I know factors like eschewing glue and identifying sustainable color-dying processes can be fairly challenging on the manufacturing side. How were you able to master that?
Kirupanantham: That took some work and it's been seven-plus years in development of this concept. We needed some of these other technologies to come into frame and be commercialized to be able to get to that. That was critical.
For dyes, we use a solution dying process and add the pigment as the fiber is being spun. So you have these pellets, and you add color into that process. As the pellets are being squeezed through - it's almost like making Play-Doh spaghetti - you can see the color changing from a natural color to the dye.
BI: Beyond Adidas brainpower, what other types of resources did you consult during the design and development stages?
Kirupanantham: We have this open source mantra where we try and do everything with experts in that field. So we don't necessarily try and be the experts in recycling, instead we worked with companies like BASF to identify recycling technology that enabled us to take shoes back and to shred and essentially re-pelletize them. That step is really critical because we have a tailored process that makes sure that the material doesn't get downgraded.
BI: How difficult is it to scale these types of products?
Kirupanantham: Every new technology has its own challenges in regards to scaling. I think the uniqueness here around the circular economy is we can't scale until we put product out and we get consumers to bring those products back. One of the elements that needs to be really addressed in order to scale is the logistics around take-back and the interaction with the consumers.
Adidas
BI: It sounds like there will be a bit of a learning curve. How do you plan to raise awareness around the recycling and take-back process?
Kirupanantham: That's something where we're trying to learn as we're still in beta mode. Part of the exploration is to understand how do we not just put product out there and develop the technologies, but also get capital back. We have different mechanisms in each city to get product back, and we're learning from each of those. Some worked well, some worked less well.
This is not just a technical innovation. We also have to innovate in terms of behavior and how consumers respond or interact. It's a catalyst for change in regards to not just the innovation, but also the behavior of the consumer.