Owning a pair of shoes is considered a luxury in tribal and rural areas of India such as Jawhar in Maharashtra, Daringbadi village in Odisha, Nizamabad in Telangana and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh. With a new partnership, Greensole and Adidas India are adopting circular design by upcycling used and discarded shoes into brand new, comfortable and light weight slippers for underprivileged children from these areas and beyond.  The ‘circular design’ philosophy refers to a design cycle where resources are continuously cycled in several forms, following a reuse and recycle loop.

 ‘Through sports, we have the power to change lives,’ says Neelendra Singh, Managing Director of Adidas India, defining what is at the core of the recent collaboration between the sportswear titan and Greensole, an Indian NGO. The sustainability initiative aims to reach out to underprivileged Indian children aged 6 to 15 - many of who walk bare feet - and provide them with basic footwear. 

 “As a global brand, Adidas works to inspire and enable people to harness the power of sport in their lives.  As one of the few companies we also integrate sustainability into our business model, by taking it to the product level,” shares Singh. Adidas India is putting in visible efforts to make a real difference towards conserving and respecting the environment, having collaborated with Greensole in the past too. Since December 2016, they have together carried out donation drives to give out upcycled footwear.

Greensole has been at the forefront of circular design in India with their aim of upcycling discarded footwear into comfortable shoes, and providing them to children in need, “GreenSole is investing in design and R&D to ensure each part of the shoe, and not just the sole or insock, is upcycled/recycled. To partner with a brand like adidas reinforces the fact that there is a lot of work that needs to be undertaken in the field of sustainability and global brands can help address these concerns at a larger level, thereby influencing the masses to contribute to mother nature,” says Shriyans Bhandari, co-founder of Greensole. The NGO has also previously collaborated with brands such as Skechers, Axis Bank and Red Bull, taking mammoth steps towards a circular economy, conserving the environement and a better society.