Messi's boots today, recycled into yours tomorrow

adidas reveals plans for custom, recyclable, zero-waste sporting goods

adidas today announced Sport Infinity, their plan for a new breed of sporting goods that will never be thrown away. Instead, football creators will be able to constantly reimagine and recycle their dream products using an inexhaustible 3-D super-material. Every gram of sportswear, including the boots of Leo Messi, will be broken down to be remoulded again in a waste-free, adhesive-free process that gives consumers more scope for personalisation than ever before.

I am proud that adidas is working to make sure that all of their boots, including mine, are being made in a way that protects the environment. For me, this is the future of football.

Leo Messi, Four-time FIFA Ballon d'Or winner

Sport Infinity is a research project led by adidas and funded by the European Commission, which brings together a variety of industry and academic experts, and combines broken-down sports products with excess materials from other industries. So the football boots of the future could contain everything from carbon used in aircraft manufacturing to fibres of the boots that scored during the World Cup.

The new super-material will make every sports fan a product designer. A pair of boots can be restyled as often as the wearer wants without worrying about waste. Whether to keep up with the latest trends or react to on-pitch needs, the football fan of the future will never wear old boots again.

This is a game-changing development for football fans. Over the next three years, Sport Infinity aims to end the days of throwing away football boots. Instead, every pair of boots is not just recycled but reimagined to the consumer’s most personal specifications.

Gerd Manz, Vice President Technology Innovation at adidas

Following the announcement of SPEEDFACTORY and our partnership with Parley for the Oceans, Sport Infinity is the next step in our commitment to innovation and sustainability. This project will close the sustainability loop, creating a high-performance product that can always be recycled.

Glenn Bennett, Executive Board Member Global Operations at the adidas Group

adidas and the European Commission kicked off the project in June 2015 together with nine other industry-leading experts: BASF SE;KISKA GmbH;FILL Gesellschaft m.b.H.;Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU); OECHSLER AG; University of Leeds, Centre for Technical Textiles (CTT); Association CETI (Centre Européen des Textiles Innovants); Hypercliq E.E.; SportsMethod Ltd.


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