Footwear retailer Allbirds has launched the world’s first net zero shoe, MO.ONSHOT and is encouraging other brands in the fashion sector to follow suit by sharing its tricks in an online toolkit.
The San Francisco brand’s new high-top shoe is made from carbon negative regenerative wool wraps sourced from Lake Hawea Station. It also features the carbon negative material SweetFoam EVA – a light sugarcane-based polyethylene packaging which the brand first created in 2018.
The brand was the first fashion retailer to label products with carbon footprints in 2020, which led to its Adizero x Allbirds collaboration.
“We didn’t just make the world’s first net zero carbon shoe,” said project design lead Jamie McLellan.
“We also made the second, third, fourth net zero carbon shoe, and so on, as we explored different prototypes to create an appropriate visual identity for this milestone.”
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“As we thought about this ‘shoe of the future’, we were clear that MO.ONSHOT couldn’t look like something from the past. We’ve not just reimagined the science of a sustainable shoe, we’ve reimagined the design too,” he added.
Co-founder Tim Brown said: “This is one small step for Allbirds – but it could be one giant leap for the footwear industry, if others join us. Unlike the space ‘race’, this is a relay – we’re all on the same side”.
“MO.ONSHOT is Allbirds’s greatest achievement, but it’s meaningless without others taking action: which is why we felt compelled to open-source our learnings, so others can pick up the baton and take us forward.”
The Allbirds Futures Team who have worked on the design project since last year, have shared their learnings here.
