Nowadays, we are more concerned about the environment than ever before; we have become acutely aware of how the choices we make impact the environment, therefore sustainability is now a priority during our purchasing decisions. As consumer demand for sustainable products has steadily grown over the years, American sportswear giant Nike has introduced a newly-developed eco-friendly leather material called Flyleather, which Nike states is lowest carbon-footprint leather material ever offered.
According to Nike, a typical leather manufacturing process discards up to 30 percent of a cow’s hide, which often ends up in a landfill. As a waste reduction solution, Nike gathers the discarded leather scrap from the floor of tanneries and converts them into fibres. Those recycled leather fibres are then fused together with synthetic fibres via a hydro process to form a composite fabric infrastructure. The finished product looks and feels just like premium leather while being 40% lighter than traditional leathers. This composite material “can be produced with a consistent grade across a broader range of product,” says Tony Bignell, Nike VP of Footwear Innovation.
Additionally, a pair of Nike Flyleather shoes has approximately half the carbon footprint compared to shoes made of traditional leather, as it uses 90-percent less water and has an 80-percent lower carbon footprint than traditional leather manufacturing due to the eliminating waste through new manufacturing technologies.
Nike has incorporated its Flyleather technology to its iconic Tennis Classic to create the Flyleather Tennis Classic, available now on Nike.com, with Flyleather versions of the Air Force 1, Air Max 90, Cortez and Jordan 1 to follow in the coming months.
