The ocean has always had a significant impact on my life. I didn’t grow up by the beach, but being born in Florida, I did visit every summer. There is something so freeing and equally terrifying about standing in the ocean where your toes just barely graze the ground underneath. Maybe it’s the coarse sand and salty air that gets stuck in your hair, but I’ve always found the environment as a place of solace for whatever stress or struggles I have. That being said, with the fondness that I have for the sea, I have a growing passion in the protection and conservation for the ocean and the wildlife.

So when Adidas announced their collaboration with Parley for the Ocean, a protection group that focuses on pollution and waste in oceans, I was immediate infatuated with the idea. Adidas has used the silhouette of one of its most popular shoes, the UltraBoost Uncaged, in order to properly showcase what environmentally friendly and sustainable fashion can produce. The Adidas UltraBoost Uncaged Parley sneakers is made out of 95% ocean plastic collected in the waters near the Maldives (a breathtaking destination that should be on the top of every bucket list). There are approximately 11 plastic bottles in each pair of shoes, and the rest of the sneaker, including the lining, the laces, and the heel, are also made with recycled material. The midsole of the shoe is the well known Adidas’ Boost technology, a soft, foamy material found in many of their sneakers, such as the NMD, the UltaBoosts, and Yeezys.

Adidas has only created 7,000 pairs of the UltraBoost Uncaged Parley (and they have an understandable but a hefty price tag of $200), however Adidas executive Eric Liedtke has made a statement saying that they hope, with the Parley Ocean Plastic, to make one million pairs of shoes in 2017 and eventually eliminate the use of virgin plastic from their designs. This in itself demonstrates a promising future for fashion and sneakers in creating more products that will be beneficial to the environment.

With fast fashion*, companies, such as Forever 21 and H&M, have impacted the environment in a negative way with the use of synthetic material in their clothing that gets thrown out after a couple of wears which results in the growing size of landfills. Adidas and Parley have worked together to show an excellent example of how efforts to protect the environment can result in great designs and products. Many people either do not understand how fast fashion is harmfully impacting the planet or maybe they turn a blind eye, so to have a major company like Adidas, creating a statement with these sneaker is a tremendous movement.

Make sure to check out Parley at to keep connected with the organization and the great deeds that they are doing (and have done), as well as with Adidas for any update on the products that they are working on. Please also keep in mind that as consumers, we also have a choice on how we shop and what we buy!

Cheers.

*Hopefully a piece will be written about this topic soon!