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Adidas builds shoes from ocean trash

Adidas' aim is to raise awareness of the problem of ocean trash, and to inspire long-term solutions.

By Brooks Hays
Adidas has produced a prototype running shoe made partially out of recycled ocean plastic. Photo by Adidas/Parley for the Oceans
Adidas has produced a prototype running shoe made partially out of recycled ocean plastic. Photo by Adidas/Parley for the Oceans

NEW YORK, July 6 (UPI) -- The ocean has a well-documented trash problem. Too much plastic ends up there. Adidas are trying to put some of it to use.

Their latest running shoe, a currently unnamed prototype, features an upper portion made entirely of recycle ocean waste -- yarns and filaments collected from illegal fishing gill nets

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The shoe is the first fruit of a new collaboration among Adidas, the environmental outreach vessel Sea Shepherd and New York-based conservation group Parley for the Oceans. Activists aboard the Sea Shepherd collected the dee-sea gill net after trailing an illegal poaching vessel off the coast of west Africa for several months.

Adidas plans to produce a range of products derived from recycle ocean plastics, but their aim is to raise awareness of the problem and inspire long-term solutions -- not necessarily to shrink the amount of floating plastic in the short-term.

"At Parley for the Oceans, we want to establish the oceans as a fundamental part of the debate around climate change," founder Cyrill Gutsch said in a press release. "Our objective is to boost public awareness and to inspire new collaborations that can contribute to protect and preserve the oceans."

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"We are extremely proud that Adidas is joining us in this mission and is putting its creative force behind this partnership to show that it is possible to turn ocean plastic into something cool," Gutsch added.

Adidas and Parley unveiled their shoe and announced product plans for their ongoing partnership last week at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

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