Source / Adidas

Continuing their green missions — Adidas has announced a sustainable take of their famous Stan Smith sneakers. It is Adidas’ first footwear concept made with Mylo mushrooms in collaboration with biotech startup Bolt Threads. If you are not familiar with Mylo, it is a fully biodegradable vegan leather made from the vegetative portion of a fungus. Bolt Threads’ “Unleather” offerings use less raw materials and energy to produce, which gives many brands a great alternative solution without ditching the leather component in designs.

The yet-to-be-released Stan Smith Mylo concept has brown rubber midsoles while the upper body, stripes, heel tab overlay, and branding continues with its “white” leather top tradition, but with a hint of warm, beige hues and is made with Mylo instead.

“The launch of Mylo as a new material is a significant move forward in our ambitious ambition to help end plastic waste,” Amy Johns Vaterlaus, Adidas’ global head of future, said. “[The Stan Smith Mylos] were created in collaboration with Earth’s ecosystems. We, as a company, continue to investigate the possibilities of material creativity.”

Source / Adidas

Adidas’ Stan Smith line has long been one of the company’s most successful sneakers. Since its debut in 1965, the shoe has almost always featured a white leather top, laces, and a minimalistic clean design. In recent years, the shoe has been widely marketed and worn as a lifestyle shoe as opposed to its original tennis shoe intent. The company launched the fully-recyclable Futurecraft Loop sneaker in 2019, and in May 2020, the company teamed up with Allbirds to reduce carbon emissions, pledging to only use recycled plastics by 2024.

Adidas plans to release a “commercially available proof of concept” in the near future. The exact release date and pricing is unknown.