ASICS Neocurve: Celebrate or Consider? | The Sustainability Report

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Source: NEOCURVE™ | ASICS

To Celebrate?

ASICS was the first sneaker company to support the task force on climate related financial disclosures. The brand invested in Pyrates (Pyratex) smart fabric, a biobased textiles company. ASICS is doing the work and this should be celebrated.

The Neocurve is the latest sneaker from the brand touting the benefits of its sustainable design. I worked with a startup based in Miami named Sneaker Impact. When I initially visited the warehouse, I realized they branded the company as a sustainable, recycling hub. Sneaker Impact is similar to the company ASICS worked with on the Neocurve, FastFeet Grinded. Both companies were collecting used and new footwear and creating microeconomies by moving those sneakers into underserved countries.

To Consider

The business was a noble effort, but it wasn’t recycling. Sneaker Impact and FastFeet were both upcycling, but the end result of sneakers which were unused or too damaged for upcycling was the eventual landing place for all apparel and kicks. FastFeet Grinding and Sneaker Impact, one in Europe and the other in the U.S., appeared to be on parallel timelines. Both companies began looking for solutions to the landfill issue.

I can only speak on Sneaker Impact, but the point is to understand why both a celebration and consideration are needed when looking at the Neocurve. My initial consult was for a trash to energy program with Waste Management in Dade County. The founder of the company, Moe Hachem, eventually asked questions about the viability of burning for energy which creates top and bottom ash issues. He wanted something better.

Sneaker Impact recently began taking damaged sneakers and grinding them. Moe placed an incredible amount of financing into laser and air separation technology to gain purity in the fibers and various compounds of the grinded footwear.

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FastFeet Grinded had done a similar task in Europe. The Neocurve isn’t just a product, it’s a concept.

The NEOCURVE™ is more than a product—it’s part of ASICS’ commitment to localized production aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. Every step in the creation of the NEOCURVE™ shoe, from collection and disassembly to design and manufacturing, takes place within Europe. This localized approach minimizes the environmental footprint associated with global supply chains, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability.

While ASICS has landed on a partial solution a complicated discussion is the use of virgin materials. In the picture above each component of the sneaker uses new components. This diminishes the celebratory aspects of the sneaker. In fact, ASICS is working on a solution, but they’ve simply recreated Nike’s Grind, adidas’ Made to be Remade, On Running’s Cyclon Program and even ASICS’ own RunRepeatReturn Mirai program.

The paradox is ASICS has taken on one of the unspoken issues in the sneaker industry as well. The supply chain and the CO2 emissions from shipping product from where it’s created to where it is being sold was removed from this equation. ASICS basically created a reshoring program in Europe to move the Neocurve from concept to shelves.

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At this moment Sneaker Impact and a host of businesses from Blumaka, to COMUNITYmade and Shloop, are all trying figure out the process of creating new from used while reshoring and reducing warehousing and shipping aspects. It’s a complex conversation which typically ends with the bottom line that some virgin material will be utilized in the creation of these ‘new, sustainable’ products.

The dialogue doesn’t have to stop there. It stops with companies like Pyratex and NFW; companies making better materials. Celebrating ASICS must be tempered with the cold fact that until sneakers are made with biodegradable materials, products will eventually become toxic additions to landfills.

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