Latest Sneaker From Unless Collective Is Entirely Plastic-Free
The latest sneaker from Unless Collective represents a new kind of paradigm shift — one away from plastics.
Named “The Degenerate” as a play on its end-of-life decomposition and rebellion against existing ways, the sneaker (which launched Thursday) is made entirely without plastics. Where adhesives are used, the material derives from natural origins (using linen thread for upper stitching as well as latex for added strength).
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It matters because plastic production is set to more than double by 2030, per the United Nations, and already takes up 85 percent of marine waste today with an estimated 11 million metric tons added annually.
Making a plastic-free shoe is no small feat, but was made possible through a collaboration between Unless Collective and material innovator Natural Fiber Welding. The biotech firm counts investments and collaborations from Ralph Lauren, Allbirds and the like.
The shoe is the first of its kind to utilize all four of Natural Fiber Welding’s bio-based (and plastic-free) materials including its “Pliant” outsole, “Tuneratm” foam for the internal midsole, “Clarus” textile for the vamp and quarter and “Mirum” leather alternative for the upper overlays. The materials come from a slurry of natural material like cork and coconut with Tencel and other cellulosic fibers used in the shoe’s construction.
Available for $139 in black-and-white colorways on Unless Collective’s website, the shoe is even designed to decompose at the end of its useful life.
“The reality is that right now there is not a compost facility in the United States that wants people sending them anything other than yard waste or food scraps,” Alan Lugo, product strategy manager at Natural Fiber Welding, told WWD. “Nor are there any that will allow shoes to be put in curbside bins. That’s because nearly every shoe made — excluding the Degenerate of course — are made of petroleum-based plastic, or natural materials that have been treated, or combined with synthetics.”
Lugo said the companies worked with two regional composting facilities in the U.S. throughout the shoe’s design and development to make way for a logical route for breakdown. After purchasing the shoes, customers will receive instructions on how to send products back to Unless for recycling.
“We find that once the shoe has been ground up, the pieces of it are not any different in the compost pile than a chunk of wood, a pinecone, or a pumpkin seed, for example,” Lugo continued. “Which is to say, none of those things actually compost in the timescale that the facilities want them to, nor would they meet qualifications that would allow them to be claimed in a commercial sense as ‘biodegradable.’ But of course we know these things to be safe for our human environment and can traverse through the natural cycle of things safely.…It’s all about what factors are driving the decision-making process. Often toxicity, impact, and end-of-life are not really considered, which is what makes this shoe so special.”
Asked what this development means for brand innovators employing plant-based materials in their latest launches, Steve Zika, president of Natural Fiber Welding, said Natural Fiber Welding’s technologies and suite of materials endeavor to be a platform for “systemic, multi-industry-wide” change.
Zika added that, “We maximize our impact through intentional partnerships across footwear, apparel, automotive, upholstery, accessories and more, and our brand partners share the same value that the more products created with our revolutionary, bio-neutral materials, the more we can change our shared material reality for good.”
