Yesterday's Biofabricate Conference was filled with all natural inspiration for 'growing a better future.' Towards the end of the conference, adidas got in on the action by announcing their latest innovation news—the Futurecraft Biofabric concept sneakers in partnership with German biotech company, AMSilk. 

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The minimal sneaks feature an upper made entirely from BioSteel®, a new triple threat synthetic fiber—nature-based, biodegradable and high-performance—that was modeled after spider silk.

"The sports shoes which have been developed together with adidas are the first products worldwide with a high-performance material made of nature-identical silk biopolymers. With this development, we are setting new standards regarding the functionality of renewable textiles" —Jens Klein, CEO of AMSilk

Up close, BioSteel® does look well, silky. It has a slight sheen to it and is very tightly knit to create the Futurecraft Biofabrics:

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BioSteel®'s benefits include its high levels of strength and elasticity, its light weight (15% lighter than conventional synthetic fibers) and its soft hand feel.

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This year has been a big year for the adidas Group—to say the least—when it comes to sustainable innovation. On the materials side, adidas has also partnered with Parley to create a line of shoes and clothing made from recycled ocean plastic. 

In terms of process innovation, the adidas Group-owned Reebok Liquid Factory is using robots to 3D print sneakers with a urethane-based liquid gel in order to eliminate molds from the footwear manufacturing process. adidas is also trying to bring some jobs back to the US with adidas SPEEDFACTORY, a new state of the art production facility opening in the Atlanta area in 2017.

While the Futurecraft Biofabrics may be more subtle in silhouette than the UltraBOOST Uncaged Parleys or Reebok Liquid Speeds, their super-powered BioSteel® material speaks for itself.

What's next for adidas? Perhaps plant based sneakers since they've already covered insect (spider silk), element (ocean plastic) and technology (liquid 3D printing)?