Adidas and Recycled Ocean Plastic Trainer

Today I am sharing one of my favourite collaborations... ever. It isn't often that my passion for the oceans and protecting the planet gets to go hand in hand with fitness, but then a pair of prototype Adidas trainers were presented at a UN and Parley conference. And with that, my dreams came true.

Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation organisation, collected ocean plastic whilst on a 110 day expedition that tracked illegal poaching ships that Adidas then crafted into beautiful trainers. I truly love the aquamarine netting finish on the shows; the design is so fluid and sleek.The prototype is part the range of Ultra Boost shoes, an energy-returning running shoe that is Adidas' answer to Nike's Free Runs. You can get your hands on the rest of the Ultra Boosts now, but there is no confirmed release date for the prototype, or if they will be released. However, from early next year, Adidas will begin incorporating recoiled plastics into their shoes.

The trainers mark the beginning of Adidas and Parley's partnership to create more sustainable fitness wear. One of the aims of Parley is to make positive differences to the plethora of issues that face our oceans today, by utilising art and creativity.

“We need to defend diversity on land and in the sea and we need solutions, and these solutions can only be realized by harnessing the imaginative side of human culture – the arts.”

I cannot even begin to highlight the importance of preserving our oceans. The nature of currents mean that much of our plastic waste ends up in one of five vortexes or "islands" of plastic, just floating in the middle of the ocean. On top of that, plastics are broken down into tiny mircoplastics, which get eaten by small animals, move up the food chain until we end up consuming them. Plastic for lunch? That is a scary thought.

Whilst these shoes are by no means an ultimate solution to plastic waste, turning plastic from waste into a resource completely turns traditional thoughts on their heads. To my mind, it is exactly what we should be doing.

I would really urge you to take a look at Parley's website. It is a real eye-opener of what issues we face, but also hope for the future. Between warming and acidification, overfishing, shark finning, plastic pollution and coral damage, the seas have a lot to deal with. My greatest interests and concerns is ocean plastics; it is what I would like contribute research to and raise awareness of. So for respected, iconic brands to be getting on board is the most exciting thing. For fitness wear that is not only fashion-forward, but sustainable and revolutionary as well is so exciting.

I really hope that Adidas and Parley are paving the way for intelligent and sustainable fitness fashion and kit, and that we will get to see more brands taking up the mantle.