The Brooklyn Half Marathon took place in New York on Saturday for the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic. A young runner in his 30s collapsed after finishing the 13-mile race and was later pronounced dead of suspected cardiac arrest. The man was one of 16 people rushed to the hospital in unseasonably hot and muggy weather that day, according to the New York Fire Department.
A weekend of record-breaking temperatures in the US and western Europe has ushered in summer a month ahead of its official start date. Reports from the European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), released in January and April, indicate that the past seven years have been the hottest on record and that the number of hot summer days is increasing.
The C3S European State of the Climate report points out that extreme surface temperatures affect everything; from agriculture to energy needs to human health. Athletes of all disciplines will feel the effects of climate change caused by increases in greenhouse gases that trap heat and warm the planet.
“Carbon dioxide and methane concentrations continue to rise year on year and there are no signs of slowing down,” said Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, in a statement on the January findings. “2021 was another year of extreme temperatures: the hottest summer in Europe, heat waves in the Mediterranean, not to mention unprecedented high temperatures in North America,” added C3S Director Carlo Buontempo. “These events are a stark reminder that we must change our habits, take decisive and effective steps toward a sustainable society, and work toward net carbon emissions reductions.”
Nike’s “Move to Zero” aims to eliminate emissions
In 2019, Nike partnered with the Climate Impact Lab, a coalition of more than 30 climate scientists, economists, analysts and other experts from some of the United States’ leading research institutions. The collaboration showed how rising temperatures will and are already impacting athletes’ activity: a sustained increase in extreme heat could cut the training calendar for sports like American football by two months by 2050, and the number of quality training days for winter sports could fall by 11 to 22 percent over the same period.
Simultaneously with the collaboration with the Climate Impact Lab, Nike launched the “Move to Zero” campaign to clarify the connection between climate and sport and to present its own plan for zero-carbon and zero-waste production methods. The plan includes several initiatives, such as phasing out single-use plastic at all Nike locations, powering distribution centers with renewable energy (such as in Belgium), keeping used shoes and manufacturing waste out of landfills and instead reusing them as Nike Grind material , which can be used for running tracks, basketball courts and gymnasium tiles. Nike also recycles slightly worn shoes and resells them at a lower price.
The imperfect process of forward-thinking design
In order to have as little impact on the environment as possible, the end of a product’s useful life must be taken into account when it is being developed. Current recycling systems around the world are not designed for clothing and footwear, which must be manually sorted, separated by fiber, stripped of non-recyclable elements and otherwise dismantled. Many items are also made of mixed materials or contain chemicals or plastics that cannot yet be broken down using technical or chemical solutions.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), only about 13 percent of discarded clothing and shoes in the US are recycled. Therefore, companies should help develop recycling methods by embedding them in a circular process where waste can become a material resource. France is currently the only country that imposes a mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy on companies producing new textiles and clothing for the French market, obliging them to take responsibility for the collection and recycling of their used products. Oregon-based Nike has therefore initiated a circular design program on its own initiative.
In the published explanations of the challenge of developing a circulatory system, Nike admits that his team does not yet have all the answers. But by creating a public-facing workbook that has more questions than guidelines, the company has established ten circular design principles for its designers to consider when embarking on new projects. The public-facing document, titled “Circularity: Guiding the Future of Design,” asks design questions such as “Without additives or oxo-degradability, can the components safely degrade?” Does each component have a different value than the entire product? How could you incorporate repair kits, including instructions, into a garment?”
“We motivate and empower everyone to make smarter change, and we build diverse, inclusive teams to drive relentless innovation for athletes and the planet,” said Nike’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Noel Kinder.
The fourth principle of circular design for Nike is disassembly to facilitate the recycling process. “We’re used to the idea that a shoe is a shoe. But actually he is a treasure trove,” the document says. This is where the company’s forthcoming new developments come into play.
Introducing the Nike ISPA Link
ISPA is an acronym that encapsulates the circular design philosophy: Improvise, Scavenge, Protect, Adapt. Without sacrificing functionality, the ISPA design team managed to bypass the traditional adhesive, which makes disassembly and therefore recycling extremely difficult. Shoes are typically recycled by crushing them — an energy-intensive process, Nike says, that limits the uses for the recycled materials.
The design of the ISPA Link is therefore made up of three interlocking modules that are connected to each other without glue and the midsole consists of pins that fit into the openings in the upper. Gluing is a time-consuming process, so Nike estimates it takes eight minutes to assemble a pair of links. The model also eliminates energy-intensive processes such as cooling, heating and conveyor belt systems, saving carbon emissions in both manufacturing and recycling. Because customers can disassemble the shoes themselves, they could potentially be taken apart before they reach Nike for recycling or as a donation. This would eliminate some of the extra steps the company needs in the recycling process.
According to a statement from Nike, the ISPA Link was tested for comfort and stability by 40 athletes who wore the prototype for around 200 hours. “We hope these ideas and the aesthetic will become normal and accelerate our ability to envision how footwear will evolve in the future,” said Darryl Matthews, VP of Catalyst Footwear Product Design.
The ISPA Link will be available in Nike stores and e-commerce platforms from June. A price has not yet been announced, but the 2020 ISPA Flow model will retail for $180. The ISPA Link Axis is set to follow in early 2023 and the traditional cut and sew method (used for the link) is set to be replaced with a 100 percent recycled polyester Flyknit upper. This was designed to fit over the outsole to eliminate stitching as the next step in disassembly.
Exercising athletes’ patience and perseverance and improving step by step will ultimately produce the next innovations in sustainability, as Nike’s Chief Design Officer John Hoke notes: “By focusing on progress rather than perfection and make better decisions, we seize the opportunity to rethink our craft in hopes that it will spark a wave of change.”
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.