Nike x Steve Nash = Eco-Friendly Shoe

Nike might have a problem controlling their sweatshop free production, but one thing they’re trying to do in good service is creating the first ever eco-friendly performance shoe. The idea was emerged by Steve Nash, the professional basketball guard for the Phoenix Suns. This is a great innovation as Nike is now tapping into the green audience and gearing their attention on creating more eco-friendly products. This is a definite change in direction for this company, considering the billions of products they produce yearly.

Just like the new Jordan’s both shoes reach a state of eco-conscious production, but Steve Nash topped Jordan by creating a full on recycled shoe. Here are the specs:

* The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor using zig-zag stitching.
* The mid-sole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production
* The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind* material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste.
* The Phoenix Suns’ colorways will have shoe laces and sockliners which use environmentally-preferred materials and will be packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box.

Of course, the new trend of collaborating brands and celebrities makes this product a limited edition shoe. There will be three different color ways aside from the Phoenix Sun themed colors shown above.

This is the beginning of Nike’s effort to create all their footwear products to meet “baseline or exceed all their baseline standards to set in their sustainability index” by 2011. By 2015, they will include this attempt with their apparel, and by 2020, all their equipment.
It’s nice to see major companies setting high standards for themselves let alone have programs like Nike Grind that focuses solely on recycling their shoes for reproduction or creating eco-friendly turfs for sports.

X’s over O’s

B