Reebok announces its first-ever plant-based running shoe

Reebok is going deeper into the sustainability movement. The athletic brand announced in a press release the launch of its latest design, the Forever Floatride Grow, which is a plant-based running shoe made from castor beans, eucalyptus trees, algae foam and more. According to the announcement, the new style builds upon the brand’s sustainable lifestyle footwear collection, Cotton + Corn.

The Forever Floatride Grow—which will launch in the fall of 2020—is the latest initiative for the brand’s commitment to reduce its use of petroleum-based plastics. Taking its Forever Floatride Energy and reimagining it with a sustainable touch, Reebok spent three years researching and testing various materials and ingredients to create the most sustainable design while maintaining its standard for running shoes.

“With Forever Floatride Grow, we’re replacing oil-based plastic with plants,” Bill McInnis, the vice president of Reebok Future, said in a statement. “The biggest challenge in making a shoe like this was developing plant-based materials that could meet the high-performance needs of runners…The Forever Floatride Grow is the result. Plant-based performance—with no compromise.”

The shoe features a highly cushioned, responsive midsole—which is built from sustainably grown castor beans and was exclusively developed by Reebok with the Sekisui Corporation in Japan. The shoe also boasts an upper material made from eucalyptus trees, a sockliner made with Bloom algae foam and a natural rubber outsole sustainably sourced from rubber trees.

Sustainable preformance Reebok

“Our Cotton + Corn collection was the first step in making shoes from things that grow,” Reebok’s brand president Matt O’Toole shared. “Now, we have taken an award-winning running shoe, the Forever Floatride Energy, and reinvented it using natural materials to create what we feel is the most sustainable performance running shoe on the market.”

Reebok’s sustainability initiatives fall under its two pillars: [Ree]grow and [Ree]cycled. The former of the two pillars focuses on creating products using natural materials while the latter centers around creating products using recycled or repurposed materials. In addition to these efforts, the footwear brand has “committed to reducing virgin polyester from its material mix and eliminating it altogether by 2025.”

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Images: Courtesy of Reebok