Adidas Unveils Biodegradable Sneakers Featuring Synthetic Spider Silk

Adidas’ Futurecraft is known to develop sustainable products, already responsible for shoes comprised of up-cycled ocean plastics as well as ‘tailored fiber’ shoes that capable of being customized to the individual wearing them.

Now, Adidas is showing off biodegradable sneakers constructed with synthetic spider silk, better known as biosteel® fiber — a replication of natural silk.

The Futurecraft biodegradable sneakers were developed as part of a collaboration with German biotech company AMSilk, the first company to introduce nature-based spider silk fibers.

Together, the companies were able to come up with the Adidas ‘futurecraft biofabric’ prototype shoes you see in the images above and below.

The completely biodegradable high-performance fiber is actually 15% lighter compared to conventional synthetic fiber, but what makes it even more impressive is the fact that the new material from Adidas might be the strongest fully natural material on the market.

“In a year of ground-breaking innovations from Adidas, the announcement of our partnership with AMSILk – and the unveiling of the Adidas Futurecraft biofabric shoe – is another step in our commitment to redefining the sports industry,” says James Carnes, Vice President of Strategy Creations at Adidas. “This concept represents premium innovation. By using Biosteel® fiber in our products, we have achieved an unrivaled level of sustainability. We are moving beyond closed loop and into an infinite loop – or even no loop at all. This is a pioneering stride forward beyond sustainability into a new territory of bionic innovation.”