Run, Return, Repeat
I’ve been a runner for over 21 years. One of the most valuable tips I learned early on was the most important gear for the sport of running is your shoes. Depending on your running gait, your build, if you over-pronate or under-pronate, whether running on trails or road, or needing shoes for speed or trainers for longer runs, you should have the right pair of shoes to ensure you’re protecting your feet and preventing injury. Every person is different, but a good rule of thumb is you’ll get between 300 and 400 miles on a pair of shoes. I tend to need new shoes at the lower end of that range. I don’t have an exact number, but I estimate that I’ve gone through around 70 pairs of running shoes in my career. Once I’ve retired a pair from running, usually I’ll keep them around for awhile. They may be part of my every day shoe rotation, or they may end up as yard shoes. Mostly, my old shoes just end up living in my garage because I don’t want to throw them away, and I haven’t found an easy and dependable way to ensure they get recycled.
We were excited to learn recently from our friends at Up and Running recently that the shoe company ASICS had come out with a recyclable shoe. The ASICS NIMBUS MIRAI™ is a performance shoe designed with sustainability in mind.
The most important point about these shoes is once you're done with them, you can scan the QR code on the shoe, and you’ll get a shipping label to send those shoes back for free to ASICS’s partner (TerraCycle) for recycling. Other sustainable aspects include:
A single material upper to make disassembly more efficient
Glue that allows the upper to be more easily separated from the sole
87% of the recycled upper will return in new shoes
The bottom line is each NIMBUS MIRAI™ will emit just 6.1kg of CO₂e across its lifecycle. That’s approximately 57% lower than industry average! With studies indicating that 300 million pairs of shoes thrown away each year in the US, this latest initiative by ASICS is a step in the right direction. To read more about ASICS' sustainability, visit https://www.asics.com/us/en-us/mk/sustainability. If you’re interested in purchasing a pair of these shoes, visit one of Up and Running’s two Dayton-area locations.
For our July litter cleanup, we held a plogging event at Pettibone Coffee, partnering with Up and Running and ASICS. We had great weather, and volunteers who came were able to try out ASICS shoes, and afterwards we all enjoyed coffee, compliments of ASICS. Here are more pictures from the event:
Disclaimer: ASICS was generous in providing Natalie and Brett each with a pair of the NIMBUS MIRAI. So far, they both are enjoying the shoes!