The lightest Nike marathon shoe at 160 grams. A one piece upper of engineered mesh that could conceivably one day be made from recycled pet bottles, turning waste into a desirable product.
By modifying several Stoll knitting machines at their Beaverton HQ and hiring skilled flat knitting machine programmers, Nike was able to transfer the changes and designs to similar machines in Asia, to create these wonderful Size specific knitted uppers that are also environmentally friendly because they eliminate the need for die cutting the pattern and nesting, therefore reducing production waste.
What a fantastic secret project to work on.
I hope the next step will be to design a shoe which is resolable, recyclable, or biodegradable, so the materials can continue serving a purpose when the shoe is eventually discarded (biodegradable means entering the bacterial food chain).
For more on biodegradable athletic footwear read my post titled ‘Brooks BioMoGo – A Biodegradable Running Shoe Midsole‘.
74 FOOTWEAR DESIGN CONSULTING 