Converse has unveiled its most sustainable shoe to date—and it’s pulling from Nike’s toolkit.
Building off the success of the athletic titan’s recent Space Hippie launch, Converse has released a Chuck Taylor All Star silhouette bringing Nike’s innovative, eco-friendly materials to one of footwear’s longest-running classics.
Made with post-production scraps recovered from its factory floors as well as everyday consumer waste, Nike’s Space Hippie line, unveiled in February, is inspiring brands across the Nike, Inc. organization to integrate more trash into their treasured designs.
The new Chuck Taylor All Star Crater will launch on Converse.com on July 23, according to a statement from the label, and the design will contain at least 40 percent recycled content by its total weight.
The shoe’s aesthetic mirrors that of its Nike cousins, with distinctive “Crater Foam” midsoles—a blend of Nike’s standard foam compounds and 12 percent Nike Grind rubber made from pulverized footwear and upcycled manufacturing waste. Replacing some of the midsole’s virgin polymer input lowers its carbon footprint, and also creates a colorful foundation for the shoe that is lightweight and responsive throughout long-term wear.
The shoe’s recognizable canvas upper is replaced with a new blend made with 50 percent recycled polyester and 50 percent post-industrial waste scraps. The hero color way, which features a chambray-blue-and-charcoal combination, complements the midsole’s seafoam tint. The shoe will also be available in black and white for shoppers who crave the classic Chuck Taylor aesthetic.
The new style from Converse underscores Nike, Inc.’s commitment to a carbon-neutral and waste-free future, known as its Move to Zero pledge.
In February, Seana Hannah, Nike’s vice president of sustainable innovation, said she saw the Space Hippie line as a step forward for the footwear industry in tackling how things are made and reused.
“We believe the future for product will be circular,” she said at the time. “We must think about the entire process: how we design it, how we make it, how we use it, how we reuse it and how we cut out waste at every step. These are the fundamentals of a circular mindset that inform best practices.”