Lubrizol touts all-TPU shoe idea
22/05/2019
Justin Park, Lubrizol's manager for performance footwear, said: "The advantage of a 100% TPU shoe is that at the end of the shoe's wear cycle it can be reground and reformed into a new shoe, therefore extending the life of the product and material."
Adidas recently launched the Futurecraft.Loop all-TPU shoe (see World Footwear May/June 2019) but at the time of going to press, we couldn’t confirm whether Lubrizol was adidas’s supplier.
The technologies can be engineered to form almost every component of a shoe: Esdex TPU for upper yarns to keep shoe construction smart and lightweight; BounCell-X, a low density, plasticizer-free, recyclable, thermoplastic foam for cushioning; Estane TRX TPU as a functional alternative to rubber outsoles; Pearlthane ECO TPU, a bio-based renewable-sourced material; Estane 3D TPU, a soft, flexible material that offers design freedom for 3D printed components; and Pearlbond TPU for adhesives assembly that provides flexibility to join a variety of substrates together.
According to the US Department of the Interior, US consumers throw away at least 300 million pairs of shoes each year. These shoes end up in landfills, where they can take 30 to 40 years to decompose.
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