When it comes to sustainability and environmental friendliness, Billie Eilish is considered one of the most committed artists of our time. On Instagram, she has now announced that she will be launching a sneaker made of ecological materials and a fashion collection in cooperation with Nike.
Reinterpretation of a classic
They should be vegan and environmentally friendly at that. The design of the kicks should be based on the Nike originals, but get a Billie Eilish twist. The model can already be seen on the singer’s Instagram channel. The shoe is Eilish’s reinterpretation of the Nike classic Air Force 1. Its design comes in all white – the color is called “Mushroom” – and is equipped with Velcro fasteners. She wanted to “respect the original and make it her own at the same time,” writes the singer.
How sustainable is the design?
The musician already has experience designing sneakers, having previously released the Air Jordan 1 and Air Jordan 15 models with Nike in 2021. The cooperation proved to be very fruitful, the shoes were sold out within a very short time.
Regarding the sustainability concept of the new design, the singer explains that it was important to her to “preferably use ecological materials wherever possible”. In the implementation, this resulted in a shoe made from a total of 18 percent recycled material. The upper is said to be made of synthetic nubuck, which is also made from recycled fabrics. The sole of the Nike sneaker is said to be composed of “Nike Grind”. By this, the brand understands a material that consists of its own production waste, unsaleable products and worn sneakers.
Nike was criticized for greenwashing
Most recently, Nike had attracted negative attention precisely because of the Nike Grind promise. Research by “NDR”, “Zeit” and “Flip” led to the assumption that new material was also said to have been shredded for the supposedly sustainable grind material. The research was carried out in a production hall in Belgium. Whether the procedure is the same in all Nike plants is unknown. Conclusions about the production circumstances of the Billie Eilish sneakers are therefore not possible.
The good image of the 20-year-old singer is probably still convenient for the fashion company: Billie Eilish has been eating vegan for years, is publicly committed to climate protection and against the use of fur in fashion and tries her concerts with “Reverb”. to make it more sustainable. She persuaded the fashion company Oscar de la Renta to completely do without fur in the future.
Eilish’s shoes will be available from April 24th and will cost around 170 euros per pair.
At this year’s Oscars, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas shared Best Song with “No Time to Die.” Together they also produced the boy band track “Nobody Like U” for the recent Pixar animated film Turning Red. Recently, the two shared an emotional video message at a benefit concert for Ukraine. The singer is going on tour this summer and will also be making stops in three German cities.