Reebok Announces Sustainability Products Initiative With Plant-Based Footwear

(Courtesy of Reebok)

Fitness brand Reebok wants to create shoes “made from things that grow,” and that’ll start with its new “Cotton + Corn” sustainable products initiative it announced this week. 

Later this year, the first plant-based piece of footwear later will include an upper made up of organic cotton and a base from industrial grown corn. According to President Matt O’Toole, the initiative is part of “being a socially responsible company” as the Reebok Future team continues to redefine the process by which it makes footwear.

“With Cotton + Corn we’re focused on all three phases of the product lifecycle,” Bill McInnis, Head of Reebok Future, said in a statement. “First, with product development we’re using materials that grow and can be replenished, rather than the petroleum-based materials commonly used today. Second, when the product hits the market we know our consumers don’t want to sacrifice on how sneakers look and perform. Finally, we care about what happens to the shoes when people are done with them. So, we’ve focused on plant-based materials such as corn and cotton at the beginning, and compostability in the end.”

McInnis added that Reebok wants to ultimately take its composted footwear and use that as part of the soil to grow materials for the next shoes.

“We want to take the entire cycle into account; to go from dust to dust,” he said.

“Reebok’s philosophy is to ‘Be More Human,’ and sustainability is a core part of that belief. As human beings, we have a responsibility to leave this planet as we found it for future generations,” Reebok President Matt O’Toole said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the fact is most shoes just end up in landfills, which is something we are trying to change. As a brand, we will be focusing on sustainability with the Cotton + Corn program as well as other initiatives we have in the works.”

Through the Cotton + Corn initiative, Reebok partnered with DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, a manufacturer of high-performance bio-based solutions.