Fashion for Good, FastFeetGrinded link with big brands to recycle footwear materials

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 26, 2023

Fashion for Good has linked up with footwear recycling innovator FastFeetGrinded on a major project designed to boost the uptake of recycled content in footwear.

And a number of brand partners are on board, including big names Adidas, Inditex, Target and Zalando.

They will test and validate FastFeetGrinded’s innovative footwear recycling process.

Fashion for Good said that globally, 24 billion shoes are added to the market each year, and 90% of them are either landfilled or incinerated. 

This creates a huge problem that FastFeetGrinded may be able to help solve.

It has the ability to deconstruct any type of pre- and post-consumer shoe, breaking it down into its macro-components that are then ground down into smaller high-purity granulates, “which FastFeetGrinded may use to create material streams for repurposed use”.

The pilot collab will see the partners diverting the pre- and post-consumer footwear to FastFeetGrinded to transform them into various new material granulates. 

From there, its extensive network of supply chain partners will produce components such as outsoles, midsoles, and flip flops. 

Fashion for Good said the brands will “closely evaluate the products’ quality and purity, aiming to showcase the potential of [the] footwear recycling technology and pave the way for scalable solutions”.

FastFeetGrinded currently operates in a 4,000 square metre facility, and is planning global expansion of its facilities.