B Corp Allbirds has debuted a new running shoe made from renewable and natural materials and is the first product from the company to feature a physical “carbon count” label, detailing the lifecycle emissions of the product to consumers. Allbirds’s “Dasher” running shoe consist of eucalyptus tree fibre, merino wool and sugarcane. The product has undergone extensive performance testing but has also been examined for its environmental impact. According to Allbirds, the shoe emits 9kg of carbon dioxide per pair, which is around 30% lower than the average trainer, many of which are made with synthetic plastics that end up in landfill or polluting the natural environment.
The company has developed a Life Cycle Assessment tool with third-party experts to evaluate the carbon impact of every process across the value chain. Allbirds’s chief executive Tim Brown said: “For too long, the performance industry told us that athletic footwear meant synthetic footwear. By failing to make the most of what is right in front of us – nature – we’ve missed some of the greatest performance materials in existence. Our multi-year journey to create the Dasher demonstrates what’s possible if we put the kind of innovation muscle into natural materials that are usually reserved for petroleum-derived synthetics.”
The Dasher features an upper mesh made from Tencel Lyocell, which uses 95% less water to produce than traditional footwear materials. Merino wool is used as lining, while recycled polyester is also utilised alongside Allbirds’s carbon negative EVA solution derived from renewable sugarcane.
Source: Edie
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