Aug 2, 2023

Published 1 day ago.About a 2 minute read. Fashion for Good and its four brand partners have joined forces with footwear-recycling innovator FastFeetGrinded to support the scaling of recycled content in footwear. Fashion for Good — along with brand partnersadidas, Inditex, Target and Zalando — has launched a pilot withfootwear-recycling innovator FastFeetGrinded to test and validate the process to support the uptake of recycled content infootwear, driving the ongoing change towards a more circular footwear industry. “This project will be a first in the footwear industry to allow us to understandthe sustainable recycling technologies and infrastructures needed to acceleratethe transition towards a circular future,” said KatrinLey , Managing Director atFashion for Good. “By fostering collaborative partnerships like this, wherecompanies come together to share knowledge and validate innovation, we pave theway for scalable solutions.” Globally, 24 billionshoes are added to the market each year; and a staggering 90 percent of those areeither landfilled or incinerated, according to research from Vivobarefoot — another innovator working to eliminate the vast amount ofwaste in the footwear industry by reimagining how shoes are designed, made andremade . Circularity is gradually gaining a foothold in footwear — with upcyclingeverything from marineplastic and carbonemissions to their own usedfootwear into new footwear components; but efforts to date are nowhere near the scaleneeded to meaningfully curtail the industry demand for raw materials, which is expected to triple by2050 . Netherlands-based startup FastFeetGrinded’s unique process deconstructs anytype of pre- and post-consumer shoe and breaks it down into itsmacro-components. These macro-components are then subsequently grinded down intosmaller, high-purity granulates which the company may use to create materialstreams for repurposed use. Through this collaborative pilot, the partners will divert pre- andpost-consumer footwear to FastFeetGrinded, which will transform them intovarious new material granulates. The next step involves the company’s extensivenetwork of supply chain partners — which will produce test products such asoutsoles, midsoles and flip flops. Fashion for Good and its partners willclosely evaluate the products’ quality and purity, aiming to showcase thepotential of FastFeetGrinded’s footwear-recycling technology and pave the wayfor scalable solutions. Click here to learn more about how your company can partner with FastFeetGrinded to scale circularity in footwear.