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Adidas Parley Gillnet Oncean Plastic Sneaker UN Contest Instagram Ultra Boost
Environment, Manufacturing, Shoes

Adidas x Parley Gillnet Sneaker Getting a Limited Edition Launch

July 28, 2016

Adidas Parley Gillnet Oncean Plastic Sneaker UN Contest Instagram Ultra Boost

Last July we reported on a new Adidas sneaker created with the help of Parley For The Oceans. The footwear featured an upper made entirely from recycled ocean plastic. The idea was to find a second life for the trash polluting the world’s oceans. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of the shoe though was the distinctive green trim. The trim utilized strands from illegal deep-sea gillnets – well actually, more specifically, from 45 miles of netting which was seized by the nonprofit Sea Shepherd. We reported on the NYTimes’ incredible profile of Sea Shepherd’s 110 day chase last year (if you haven’t read it, please do!). Last summer Adidas stated that they wanted to turn the shoe into a real product eventually. It appears the footwear maker is a step closer to that, they have announced the launch of 50 pairs of the Adidas x Parley.  

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by Doug Parker
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Layer Design Worldbeing Thunderclap carbon footprint tracker wearable
Environment, Wearable Technology

Worldbeing Wearable Tracks Your Carbon Footprint

January 29, 2016

Layer Design Worldbeing Thunderclap carbon footprint tracker wearable

It is no secret that we are harming the environment. Between toxic air, bizarre temperatures, and increasingly violent weather, all is not right in the world. While it is easy to look at various industries and see how they are hurting the earth, it is a bit more challenging to look inward and understand exactly how your actions are effecting the environment. That is the concept behind Layer Design’s Worldbeing wearable. The Nike Fuelband-like bracelet would work with a companion mobile app to track things such as transportation choices, energy usage, food consumption, and shopping. While still in development, the bracelet would rely on consumption data from power companys’ smart-meters, carbon footprint info from food databases (such as MyFitnessPal), and granulated purchase data from a connect credit card (more detailed information is being added continually to credit card records). If Worldbeing shipped tomorrow you would need to input a lot of the data by hand, but the company behind it, in partnership with the Carbon Trust, believe that by the time Worldbeing becomes available, much of the information would be widely available and automatically fed to the app. The wearable itself is used to monitor your activity and transportation choices in addition to providing a glance-able readout of how your carbon footprint compares to a previous day. Layer Design envisions a social aspect to the Worldbeing, allowing you to compete against friends to have the lowest carbon footprint for the day. Keeping with the whole earth-friendly idea, the plan is to construct the wearable device from recycled plastics and e-waste; it will utilize an ultra low-power e-ink display and charge via a physical connection (induction charging is not very efficient). While there is no schedule for the release of Worldbeing, the device did achieve the goal level of interest on site Thunderclap.  

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by Doug Parker
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Adidas Parley For The Oceans 3D Printed Sneaker Ocean Plastic Gillnet
Environment, Shoes

3D Printed Adidas Sneaker Made From Even More Ocean Trash

December 9, 2015

Adidas Parley For The Oceans 3D Printed Sneaker Ocean Plastic Gillnet

While there have been some amazing advancements with technology and sneakers this year, we think that Adidas’ partnership with Parley For The Oceans is one of the most exciting! Earlier this year the companies unveiled the Adidas x Parley sneaker in front of the U.N. General Assembly. The entire upper of the sneaker was constructed of recycled ocean plastic and seized deep-sea gillnets (if you haven’t read the story of how Parley obtained the 45 miles of gillnet for the prototype, it is incredible). While the sneaker shown was only a prototype, Adidas announced that they were working with Parley to make the Adidas x Parley a consumer product. The idea was great, with every sneaker purchased you helped the oceans to be cleaner.

But Adidas and Parley For The Oceans clearly thought they could do better. The two companies used the COP21 conference to unveiled the next step in their eco-friendly sneakers. The new sneakers continue to feature an upper constructed from recycled ocean plastic but have added a new midsole. Adidas and Parley designed a 3D printed midsole that consists of recycled polyester and gillnets. The result is a sneaker that is almost entirely made from ocean waste. While there is no timeline to bring the sneakers to market, Adidas and Parley continue to state that is the ultimate plan.  

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by Doug Parker
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RESHAPE 15 SPONGESUIT Bikini
Environment

Ingenious Swimsuit Absorbs Pollution As You Swim

October 13, 2015

RESHAPE 15 SPONGESUIT Bikini

Wearable technology has the potential to do so much more than keep us updated to when someone likes our latest selfie. Wouldn’t it be amazing if it could do something to improve the earth around us? Part of the RESHAPE 15 wearable tech competition, a team out of the US won first place their concept that does just that. Called SpongeSuit, it is a swimsuit that utilizes 3D printing and a special nano-scale material to absorb pollutants in the water as you swim. Imagine if everybody who went swimming in an ocean, lake, or river was cleaning the water!

The designers behind the project view their swimwear as both environmentally proactive and economically sustainable. It is constructed of two parts. First is a 3D printed elasto plastic exterior shell. This is easily created and requires very little material. The second part is a nano-scale super-hydrophobic carbon material, called the Sponge. Basically this means the Sponge features different shapes and sizes of microscopic pores which allow it to separate and retain contaminants, while not absorbing water. In fact, the material is so porous, it can absorb up to 25 times its weight in contaminants. The first thing that crossed our mind when reading about the SpongeSuit was, “We don’t want that stuff getting on us!” Well, good news;  

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by Doug Parker
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Environment

Augsburg Museum Turns Jacquard Punch Card Into Art

September 2, 2015

Augsburg Textile Museum Light Exhibit Jacquard Punch Card

Chances are you have never made it to Augsburg, Germany (I certainly haven’t). But if you had, you more than likely would have visited the Augsburg Textile And Industry Museum (TIM). The museum, located in a former worst spinning mill, is actually an anchor point on the European Route Of Industrial Heritage, which highlights the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. TIM recently launched a video installation consisting of two acts designed to highlight the juxtaposition of the beauty of fashion and the brutality within the textile industry.

Both acts take something old and make it new again – a statement about the industry’s new push towards sustainability. For the first act, the lighting is controlled in real time by a punch card used to create a towel in an old Jacquard loom. All the visuals are  

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by Doug Parker
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Environment

Company Looks To Build Smog Vacuum One Ring At A Time

August 10, 2015

Smog Free Tower Cube Ring

Imagine Los Angeles without an orangey layer of haze or Beijing with crystal clear air; according to Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, the Smog Free Tower is the first step to getting there. The Tower is basically a giant vacuum that behaves in much the way an air purifier does. His vision calls for these machines to be located throughout metropolitan areas basically scrubbing the air.

Currently on Kickstarter, Roosegaarde is looking to fund the 1st such Tower mainly through the sale of jewelry made from smog. Looking towards a world where there is no such thing as waste, Roosegaarde made the connection that most of the solid material in smog is carbon and, as such, is perfect for creating jewelry (think: diamonds). His company, Studio Roosegaarde, designed beautiful acrylic cubes of compressed smog. Through the campaign you can purchase the hauntingly attractive 8.4mm cube by itself or mounted to a ring or cufflinks. The smog in each cube is representative of the carbon content of 1,000m3 of air.

We love the concept of compact machines scrubbing manmade elements from the air. I think Roosegaarde is on the right path, but I think it would be even more beneficial if, instead of large machines placed around a city, the devices were smaller and could be mounted on thousands of rooftops. The real genius of the campaign, though, is the use of waste from the machine to fund new machines. There is something beautiful in the cyclical nature of that. Hopefully, with Roosegaarde being a designer, he does not get bored with the concept and continues to see it though!

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by Doug Parker
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Environment

The Incredible Chase Behind Adidas’ Gillnet Sneakers

July 29, 2015

Sea Shepherd Thunder Adidas Parley For The Oceans

Yes, we are a fashion and technology blog, but every now and then we come across a story that cannot be missed. Recently we told you about the impressive Adidas sneakers made from ocean plastics and gillnets used for illegal fishing. The sneakers were created through a partnership with Parley For The Oceans. Well it turns out Parley For The Oceans has a few partnerships of their own including one with Sea Shepherd. As governments do less and less to go after the people harming our oceans, the Sea Shepherd organization uses private money to bring them to justice, focusing on the worst offenders.

Two of Sea Shepherd’s ships were responsible for the 110 day, 10,000 nautical mile chase that produced the approximately 75km of gillnets in-part used in the Adidas sneaker. They were in pursuit of the Thunder, the most egregious out of the five most notorious illegal fishing boats in the world. Despite being banned since 2006 from deep sea fishing in regions of the globe, the Thunder has sold an estimated $76 million in illegally caught fish over the past decade. Parley, for its part, is working to find new uses for materials such as the gillnets so that there is more money to be made selling them to be repurposed than on the black market, where the nets will inevitably end up being used again.

Please do yourself a favor and read The New York Times’ account of the incredible pursuit that helped lead to the creation of the Adidas x Parley sneaker.

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by Doug Parker
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