adidas Unveils the Futurecraft Biofabric Prototype Made From Biosteel Fiber

As of late adidas has been an innovation powerhouse; the brand is revolutionizing what sneakers can be made of by utilizing ocean plastic and recycled polyester — not messing around with auto-lacing or other gimmicks. Yesterday, at the Biofabricate Conference in New York, adidas unveiled the Futurecraft Biofabric that uses Biosteel fiber.

According to adidas, the Futurecraft Biofabric prototype shoe features an upper made from 100% Biosteel fiber, a nature-based and completely biodegradable high-performance fiber that is developed by the German biotech company AMSilk. This revolutionary fiber is 15% lighter in weight than conventional synthetic fibers and is quite possibly the strongest fully natural material available.

Moreover, Biosteel fiber is far more sustainable than other materials because it is 100% biodegradable in a fully natural process. This is just the next step in adidas’ mission of sustainable innovation — it began with virgin plastics, moved to recycled plastics, then it partnered with Parley for the Oceans. Now, the brand is entering completely new territory.

adidas and AMSilk have announced a partnership that will explore the use of Biosteel fiber in performance products on a larger scale. That means that these shoes could very well become reality, just like the sustainable Parley for the Oceans sneakers did.

James Carner, Vice President of Strategy Creation at adidas had this to say:

“In a year of ground-breaking innovations from adidas, the announcement of our partnership with AMSilk – and the unveiling of the adidas Futurecraft Biofabric shoe – is another step in our commitment to redefining the sports industry.

This concept represents premium innovation. By using Biosteel® fiber in our products, we have achieved an unrivalled level of sustainability. We are moving beyond closed loop and into an infinite loop – or even no loop at all. This is a pioneering stride forward beyond sustainability into a new territory of bionic innovation.”

CEO of AMSilk, Jens Klein, said:

“The sports shoes which have been developed together with adidas are the first products worldwide with a high-performance material made of nature-identical silk biopolymers. With this development we are setting new standards regarding the functionality of renewable textiles.”

The unveiling of the adidas Futurecraft Biofabric shoe highlights just how much innovating the Three Stripes brand has done in 2016; some of its other accomplishments this year were the Futurecraft Tailored Fibre, which utilized revolutionary manufacturing techniques to allow for unique footwear designs, and the Futurecraft M.F.G., the first product created at the adidas SPEEDFACTORY facility.

Do you know of another footwear brand innovating like adidas is? All I know is that I love what adidas is doing — killing it in basketball, running, and future technology. Remind me who’s number one? Let us know what you think about this latest prototype in the comments below.

Source: adidas