We may have written a number of times recently about Adidas' innovations in the field of their (sports) shoes, but beautiful things are also being thought up in this field in the Netherlands. Publicis Groupe, in collaboration with European parties, is coming up with a shoe whose sole is made from old chewing gum from the streets.
We read in a nice article on Retailtrends how Publicis Groupe came up with the idea of the so-called Gumshoe. It wanted to do something about the polluting product on our streets, the most common street pollution after cigarettes. The downside of chewing gum is also that it takes up to 25 years to completely break down. To do something about this, Publicis Groupe came up with the Gumshoe, a shoe whose soles are made of chewing gum.
Publicis Groupe, in its search for a solution to chewing gum pollution, noticed that it is made from rubber plant. You can reverse the process from rubber plant to chewing gum and then you can turn used chewing gum back into rubber. The chewing gum scraped off the streets of Amsterdam was collected and the brand Explicit Wear then further initiated the process from rubber to shoe sole.
It turned out that it was not possible to make the sole solely from chewing gum, due to too rapid wear and tear. Therefore, natural wear beads were added to the soles. A pair of Gumshoes requires about 100 gum pellets. The first edition of the shoes had an engraved map of Amsterdam on the bottom. This was because that is where the gum came from. The shoes are available in bright pink and black. The new collection will also include orange, bright blue and green shoes. After all, the makers state: shoes with a story are allowed to stand out. Also, the leather of the next shoes will be made from recycled fish leather, making the shoe entirely made of recycled material.
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Gumshoe production has now been joined by the universities of Groningen and Eindhoven, in addition to the city of Amsterdam. There are also ideas to expand to London and Berlin. The shoes marketed there will be made from chewing gum from those cities. A map in the shoe will probably not happen then, as this again generates a lot of waste.
Chewing gum collected from the streets usually contains a lot of sand. It takes a lot of time and money to get that sand out, so makers are trying to collect chewing gum in a different way: by hanging trays at colleges. This will include creative murals to make the trays stand out even more. Chewing gum producer Sportlife pays for the trays. Speaking to Retailtrends, Publicis Groupe says: "So in the end you have a whole new cleaning system paid for by a supplier that makes gum and cleans up its own stuff. We never timed and planned it that way, but that's how it turned out because of all the PR we got."
Publicis Groupe hopes to create awareness among young people with the Gumshoe. "It would be nice if young people also think about throwing away gum an sich. Currently, you can fill the Arena with all the chewing gum that ends up on the street."
Source: Retailtrends.nl
