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Up to 50% of recycled materials are used on Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next Nature

Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next Nature is undoubtedly Nike’s most recyclable product so far, in terms of material cutting rate, recycled edges and corners and reshaping materials. The weight of recycled materials accounts for at least 50%.

Since Nike released the first pair of basketball shoes Nike Cosmic Unity, the NIKE running shoes designers were also inspired by the core ideas of Move to Zero (Zero carbon emissions and zero waste). The recycled materials of Cosmic Unity accounts for at least 25%. And the recycled materials of Alphafly Next Nature accounts for at least 50%.

The recycled materials of ZOOM X insole accounts for at least 70% of the weight. In reviewing Eliud Kipchoge’s challenge to break the 2 hours record of marathon, the designer Rachel Bull think that Nike running shoes have such strong performance which mainly depends on the ZoomX foam. If these foam are wasted, it will be a big loss. The effective solution is to use the surplus recycled foam material of insole to produce the shoe-pad.

Alphafly Next Nature re-use the superfluous Zoom Air cushion material by 3D printing and make the Flyprint and Flyknit mixed vamp fabric.

The combination of Flyprint and Flyknit technology is important to the function of shoes. Rachel Bull said, Flyknit material is pliable and tough, it can guarantee the tension and air permeability by using on the shoe head. And You can see the ZoomX foam crushed aggregates on the insole. We thought that the appearance is also a part of the product’s story. When combining the material and producing technology, it will create the new items.

Rachel Bull also said, Alphafly Next Nature’s contribution to the integration of performance and sustainability is exciting. We knew that if we could do this on the products with strong performance, it would prove that NIKE could apply this technology to other products’ lines.