Adidas Parley: Recycled Materials....from the ocean?

In the past week or so we have given a lot of attention to Nike’s use of recycled materials in both their Space Hippie line, as well as recently with the addition of recycled materials into Nike By You. Now it’s time for Adidas to get their time to shine with their longstanding relationship with Parley. We did a video looking at the Adidas x Parley Ultraboost DNA, which you can view here, but today we are taking a deeper look into the history of Parley models, and where the Ultraboost DNA falls in line. Some of the best Parley models came when Ultraboost was at peak hype, in the mid 2010’s. The weaving of the ocean plastic into the upper makes this an interesting shoe across the board with teal accents throughout. From NMDs to Ultraboost, Adidas comes every year with something different, but they always seem to look the same. I’m not sure if Adidas wants to focus on the basic model and color blocking in order to sell the Parley models more easily, but they definitely aren’t turning heads with their creativity. The point of the Parleys is to promote environmental growth and sustainability, but without creative designs, these shoes aren’t selling out every year. Hell, I’ve even seen a pair of the Parley NMDs show up in a TJMAXX. Talk about not being able to sell shoes. And with Nike coming into the picture with the Space Hippie and more widely available recycled material designs, the Parley reign of environmental activism in shoes may be coming to an end. Take a look below at the various Parleys, and let me know if you see any creative differences.