2023 Is The Year Football Boots Finally Go Green
Wed, Mar 22.23
Back at a previous job that also required me to write about football boots from time to time, one of the angriest DM’s I ever received came courtesy of an activist campaigning about one singular issue: the use of Kangaroo leather in high-end clothing. It’s a material perhaps more synonymous with its use in elite football boots than anything else, and if I’m being honest, it was hard to imagine attitudes towards the material, with its blend of softness, comfort and weatherproofing, anytime soon.
In fact, despite sportswear taking on a far more sustainable identity in recent years, with recycled and plant-based materials making their way into training apparel and running shoes en masse, it’s always felt like football was lagging behind somewhat.
A few years on, however, things are changing, and 2023 in particular feels like the year where the use of eco-minded production methods in football boots become the norm, rather than the exception.
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In fact, despite sportswear taking on a far more sustainable identity in recent years, with recycled and plant-based materials making their way into training apparel and running shoes en masse, it’s always felt like football was lagging behind somewhat.
A few years on, however, things are changing, and 2023 in particular feels like the year where the use of eco-minded production methods in football boots become the norm, rather than the exception.
Barely a third of the way through the year, we’ve already seen a number of drops that show the biggest brands in the world are looking to a future beyond the use of single-use synthetics and carbon-heavy animal leather. Most notably last week, adidas dropped its first ever football pack incorporating Parley ocean plastic: a synthetic material made primarily from recycled plastic waste reclaimed from the ocean.
Elsewhere, a shift away from the most quintessential of all boot materials—leather—also seems to be on the cards. Puma’s brand new King Ultimate is the first in the storied line to debut an upper composed entirely from a plant-based leather it calls K-BETTER. Notably, this is a move Puma has said it will commit to going forward, phasing out the use of kangaroo leather in its boots entirely. This will not only keep vegans and animal rights activists—who have voiced valid concerns about the methods used in harvesting the leather—happy, but save huge amounts of water and other resources that traditionally go into processing leather.
Nike has also indicated that it’s top-tier leather boots will be made from a synthetic leather, the Swoosh committing to phasing out the use of K-Leather entirely across both the Tiempo and Premier Silos. Could Adidas’s Copa go the same way? Only time will tell.
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