The race to tackle carbon emissions is being hampered by underinvestment in new plant-based materials, according to Hana Kajimura of Allbirds, which has launched a low-carbon trainer with Adidas.
"We lament how natural materials maybe don't perform as well as synthetics," said Kajimura, head of sustainability at the New Zealand footwear brand.
"But this is just because of the lack of investment and innovation in this space."
The new collaboration with Adidas, called Futurecraft.Footprint, is the latest in a series of moves by the sneaker industry to reduce the carbon footprint of its products. The two brands believe it is the lowest-carbon trainer ever made.
Last year, Belgian brand Norm managed to whittle the footprint of its unisex 1L11 shoe down to 6.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by using recycled plastic while Nike's lowest-carbon trainer to date, the 2020 Space Hippie, weights in at 3.7 kilograms of CO2e. The carbon footprint of the Futurecraft.Footprint trainer (top) is labelled on its midsole (above)
The new Futurecraft.Footprint pushes this even lower to 2.94 kilograms of CO2e.
By contrast, the average sneaker emits around 13.6 kilograms of CO2e throughout its life and is constructed from 65 distinct components ? most of them plastic.
But to create a zero-emission trainer, Kajimura believes the industry needs to invest in developing plant-based materials that are capable of storing carbon while rivalling the performance of petr...