adidas introduces the world’s first performance shoe made using Biosteel – a replication of natural spider silk fibers. The adidas Futurecraft Biofabric prototype shoe features an upper made from 100% Biosteel fiber, a nature-based and completely biodegradable high-performance fiber, developed by the German biotech company AMSilk. The material offers a unique combination of properties that are crucial in performance, such as being 15% lighter in weight than conventional synthetic fibers as well as having the potential to be the strongest fully natural material available.
In addition, Biosteel fiber also provides a far more sustainable offering, with it being 100% biodegradable in a fully natural process. This continues adidas’ journey of sustainable innovation – from a starting point of virgin plastics, to recycled plastics, to its partnership with Parley for the Oceans and now a totally new frontier of investing in solutions that leverage science and nature as an integral part of innovation.
The adidas Futurecraft Biofabrice was unveiled at the renowned Biofabricate Conference in New York as adidas and AMSilk announce a partnership that will explore the use of Biosteel fiber in performance products on a larger scale.
all images by Hannah Hlavacek | courtesy of adidas Group