Adidas Shoes Made from Recycled Ocean Plastic Will Hit Stores This Year

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Like H&M, Adidas released its annual sustainability report on Thursday, in which it outlined its ongoing environmental initiatives and the milestones it aims to hit by 2020. Many of them won't be visible to consumers, achieving 50% water savings at its apparel material suppliers or reducing energy use at its strategic suppliers by 20%. Plenty will be, though: Adidas is in the process of eliminating plastic bags in its stores and is rolling out a product recycling program in all of its major cities.

Pretty soon shoppers will be able to purchase the fruits of Adidas's recycling efforts, in the form of a performance shoe made from ocean plastic and gillnets used in fishing. This project, which is a partnership with the conservation group Parley for the Oceans, has been out in the open for a little under a year now — last June, the brand showed off a shoe upper made from the materials, and in December it unveiled a 3D printed midsole — but an Adidas rep has now confirmed to Racked that a range of ocean plastic footwear will be heading to stores "sometime this year." (WWD first reported the news on Friday.)

Obviously, the process of building recycled plastic sneakers is a little more involved than smushing some plastic bottles in a trash compactor and hammering them into a shoe shape. That's why Adidas is investing in diverting plastic trash from coastal areas back into the production cycle, and also acquiring machinery that can turn those raw materials into usable filaments and fibers.

Adidas's rep couldn't say when exactly the ocean plastic shoes will be hitting stores, but keep an eye out — this is one launch that the brand should market the crap out of.

For more from Adidas, watch our preview of the Adidas Outdoor fall 2016 collection.