Allbirds, a San Francisco-based lifestyle brand, announced the launch of “M0.0NSHOT,” which the firm describes as the world’s first net zero carbon shoe produced without offsets.
The new sneaker has a carbon footprint of 0 kg CO2e, compared to an industry average of 14kg, according to Allbirds.
According to the business, the shoe’s development was the product of years of effort, including the creation in 2018 of a carbon-negative material, SweetFoam, which guided the new foam for M0.0NSHOT, and a 2021 partnership with Adidas on a low-carbon shoe, Adizero x Allbirds.
The innovative shoe features a carbon-negative regenerative merino wool upper obtained from Lake Hawea Station in New Zealand, an 80% bio-content superlight foam, and bioplastic eyelets produced from microorganisms that convert methane into plastic-like polymers. In addition, the product’s packaging is composed of sugarcane-derived, carbon-negative Green PE, and it will be transported using biofuel-powered ocean shipping and electric trucking.
Allbirds also announced that it would open-source its tools for the new shoe so that other firms can follow its development in making low-carbon shoes.
Allbirds stated that the shoe would be unveiled in June 2023 and available in spring 2024.