Reebok Announces Launch of First Plant-Based Sneakers
From H&M’s recycled cotton clothing to Adidas’ sneakers made of recycled ocean-polluting plastic bottles, fashion is finally getting a conscience. The latest in eco-friendly fashion comes from Reebok and this one’s a goodie! Reebok has announced the launch of its first plant-based shoes, Reebok Cotton + Corn, a stylish and planet-friendly solution to fashion, essentially making your shoe a vegetable, kind of.
The brand is now selling limited numbers of the new shoe in unisex sizes, and we’re going to bet they’ll fly off the shelves (of course, you’ll need a little help getting them to SA). Available in just one natural/chalk colourway, the new plant-based shoe is a big step in environmentally friendly fashion. 75 percent of the Cotton + Corn sneaker is made from USDA-certified biological material with the upper being made entirely of the shoe’s namesake cotton, while the sole is made from a corn-derived biobased TPU (DuPont’s Susterra Propanediol). But that’s not all – even the insole is made from castor bean oil, and the shoe’s natural colour is due to the fact that Reebok has avoided using dyes to maintain the shoe’s eco-friendly credentials.
The brand explained that the sneaker is just the beginning of a whole new way of making fashion “from things that grow”, as Reebok has even ditched the petroleum-based materials and process used to create the synthetic rubber and foam cushioning (around 20 billion shoes are produced yearly from traditional footwear manufacturers). It’s just not a sustainable way of making footwear.
Lastly, due to being plant-based, the shoes are compostable. Bill McInnis, Head of Reebok Future, explains; “Ultimately, our goal is to create a broad selection of bio-based footwear that can be composted after use. We’ll then use that compost as part of the soil to grow the materials for the next range of shoes. We want to take the entire cycle into account; to go from dust to dust.”
And they look awesome, too.
Reebok Cotton + Corn sneakers are now available online from Reebok at $95 a pair.
But how do I get it to SA?
Of course, some of these products won’t necessarily all ship to South Africa, which could be a headache for savvy online consumers. On top of that, you may want to do some more online shopping from other international online stores and bundle your purchases together (why not, right?). Luckily, Postbox Courier can help you with that little logistical headache. They offer a consolidating shipping service that can get your online orders from basically anywhere in the world straight to your door, so if you manage to spot some good deals on Amazon and eBay (for example), the shipping of the goods won’t be a problem.
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