As we reported back in June, adidas and Parley for the Oceans did a neat job turning difficult recycled materials into an actually desirable concept shoe. The sustainable kicks were made from the equivalent of 11 plastic bottles and significant amounts of plastic reclaimed from abandoned netting ocean waste in the Maldives. After over a year of trying material development, nearly 95% of the shoe—from heel to lining to laces—was made from reused material. 

However, despite high level acclaim (they even presented at the UN) the adidas x Parley shoe was a hyper limited beta edition, with just 50 pairs raffled off in an online contest.

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Fast forward to today, and it looks like green-leaning hypebeasts might be in luck after all. The company has announced plans to make ~7,000 pairs of their Ultraboost with Parley Plastic available both in adidas stores and on the adidas website come mid-November. 

The shoes will retail at around $220 (€200) and are just the first in an upcoming line of Parley collab performance gear, all incorporating reclaimed materials. The line will mentionably include official jerseys and kit for Madrid CF and FC Bayern Munich... a couple of the biggest teams out there. 

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Past limited editions and clothing for footy players, the footwear company has committed to using Parley Ocean Plastic in one million pairs of shoes, and has established the goal of eliminating virgin plastic from their supply chain overall.

This speaks volumes about the work and dedication of the material developers and plastics activists behind the scenes. Their reframing of difficult, polluting materials may help steer a major international brand into cleaner waters.