Swiss shoe brand develops running shoe made from carbon emissions

Swiss performance sportswear brand On has launched a prototype shoe made from carbon waste.

Over the past decade, On has become one of the fastest growing running brands (Olympians, triathletes and recently retired tennis player Roger Federer have been seen wearing their gear). But with this major growth and influence comes enormous responsibility, says Nils Altrogge, Head of Technology Innovation at On.

Could this shoe, even though it is currently only a one-off, help the company reuse carbon emissions while meeting the need for footwear? Altrogge helps us understand how it works, the technology behind it, and its implications for the footwear industry.

Esha Chhabra: How are these carbon emissions captured?

Nils Altrogge: To create Cloudprime, On partnered with LanzaTech, Borealis, and Technip Energies to leverage their innovations in biochemistry, processes, and materials. Each company has a different step in the process, the first being carbon capture. That's where LanzaTech's carbon recycling technology comes in, which starts by capturing carbon monoxide at the source. Think of it like tying a brewery to an emissions source, like a steel mill or a landfill. This technology captures emissions directly from industrial sources before they are released into the atmosphere. Much like beer, emissions go through a fermentation process where natural bacteria convert the carbon-rich gas into ethanol.

The process simply breaks down as follows: LanzaTech captures carbon monoxide emitted from industrial sources and ferments it with bacteria into ethanol. Technip Energies then dehydrates the ethanol to make ethylene. Borealis then polymerizes the ethylene to become EVA in the form of small, solid plastic pellets. Finally, On uses the pellets to create the performance foam he uses in the Cloudprime.

Chhabra: What is the % carbon content used in each shoe?

Altrogge: Breaking down the individual components, the midsole is made from On's CleanCloud EVA technology, which is 51% CO2, in collaboration with Borealis, Lanzatech and Technip, while the upper is made from CleanCloud polyester yarn with 27% CO2 PES, in collaboration with Fairbrics (we are also the first shoe manufacturers to make an upper from carbon emissions).

After five years of development, Cloudprime is made with carbon emissions, in its EVA foam base and ... [+] in the upper fabric.

On

Chhabra: How much does it cost? I imagine it's an expensive business, so is it realistic to scale?

Altrogge: As we evolve our go-to-market strategy and continue to build momentum for this new model of materials innovation, we hope to generate growing demand that will help balance the significant investment required to make the shoe. We don't have a specific price for the Cloudprime yet, but our goal is to make the price competitive with other foam technologies on the market.

Consider the electric vehicle industry: 15 years ago, the technology and demand was vastly different than it is today. Consumer expectations and needs have changed, as has the market.

When you look at the EVA foam market, there is a similar "chicken and egg" comparison. As consumer and business demand increases, the ability to scale technology and product will also increase. Our mantra when looking at innovative initiatives is to discover, apply, then evolve. We have completed the application phase and are moving on to scalability. Bringing CleanCloud to commercial scale will take time, resources and strong commitment from all partners.

Chhabra: What is the life cycle of these shoes? Will they break down if made from fermented...