Textile Insight

textileinsight.com Fall 2023 ~ Textile Insight • 25 this percentage of bio-based content (55 percent) is used in the midsole of an ath- letic shoe," says John Hurban, VP global marketing/sales, CovationBIO PDO. "We believe runners and fitness enthusiasts will benefit from increased high-performance shoe flexibility, comfort and durability. is shoe sizes up against the competition and goes the distance to have a lighter environ- mental footprint." e Triumph is part of Saucony's sustainability push to have 90 percent of its products contain organic, recycled or renewable materials by 2025, with 100 percent by 2030. Design Directions BOA uses innovative tools across both its Performance Fit Lab and within the Partner Product Innovation & Development department from a range of 3D technol- ogies, for fit, function and prototyping to the latest in Machine Learning/AI. "We use machine learning to digest vast amounts of data and fit patterns to our data to see if it backs up our hypotheses," explains Dan Feeney, senior director of Partner Product Innovation & Development. "For example, we have motion capture data from each time an athlete touches our force plates. is data allows us to 'parameterize' movement (or fully describe it) where we know which movements are better than others. We used machine learning models to quantify which aspects of fit drive better performance." Here's a handful of new styles kickin' it when it comes to sustainability: Merrell / Scrap Scrap is a limited run footwear collection crafted from excess materials not used in production and includes three styles. Each shoe upper features leftover scraps that are uniquely placed, cut, and stitched onto the footwear. The Scrap line was released in September in honor of Zero Waste Week, an international campaign. Decathlon / 3D printed performance shoe A collaborative effort between French sports retailer Decathlon, U.S. printing technologies developer HP, and Italian knitting machinery maker Lonati, "reshapes" the sustainable footwear landscape through improved customization, repairability, localized production, and simpler end of life recycling. Oboz / Cottonwood The Cottonwood is Oboz's most eco-friendly footwear to date. Designed with done-in-a-day hiking adventures in mind, the versatile shoes are PFAS-free, with over 20 percent of the material (by weight) derived from environmentally preferred materials. Also notable is the brand's recently received B Corp status. Scarpa / Spin Planet The new Spin Planet, part of the company's Planet range, has an upper constructed from 100 percent recycled fibers, while the EVA midsole contains 45 percent recycled material and the rubber outsole 30 percent. Scarpa describes the Spin Planet as its most eco-friendly long-distance trail-running shoe ever.

• Cover