Adidas unveils world’s first performance shoe made from Biosteel

Athletic-shoe maker adidas has unveiled the first performance shoe made using Biosteel^® fiber—a replication of natural silk that’s 100 percent biodegradable through a natural process.

The adidas Futurecraft Biofabric prototype shoe features an upper made from 100 percent Biosteel fiber, a nature-based, high-performance fiber developed by German biotech company AMSilk; the material is 15 percent lighter in weight than conventional synthetic fibers. 

This development follows the release of a series of products this year that adidas says
“have pushed the boundaries of sneaker innovation,” including the Futurecraft Tailored Fibre, which utilized revolutionary manufacturing techniques to enable unique footwear designs and the Futurecraft M.F.G., the first product to be created at adidas’ industry-changing SPEEDFACTORY facility.

These developments have been complemented by adidas’ commitment to sustainability, with its relationship with Parley for the Oceans having led to the release of the first mass-produced footwear created using Parley Ocean Plastic, the UltraBOOST Uncaged Parley.