In the last few years, sneakers made from recycled materials like plastic bottles and rubber scraps have become increasingly popular. This week, Asics upped the ante, releasing a shoe made from a recycled material that, to our knowledge, has never been used in a sneaker before. The brand updated its Gel-Sonoma 15-50 silhouette in a red and white colorway that is crafted partly from…detonated airbags.
Asics partnered on the footwear with Toyoda Gosei, a Japanese automotive parts supplier that specializes in things like airbags, consoles and dashboards. Although the company is part of Toyota Group, they also sell parts to other manufacturers. “According to Toyoda Gosei, the fabric used to make airbags is notoriously difficult to recycle,” Autoblog noted, so most of it ends up in landfills. To save some of them from going into the trash, the sneaker brand used prototype airbags that were detonated during testing to make the upper section of the new shoe.
Airbag stitching, numbering and holes were added to the sneaker for extra flair, and the inflated tongue not only imitates an airbag, but provides a little cushion, too.
The airbag version of the Asics Gel-Sonoma 15-50 went on sale today in Japan. Although the regular Gel-Sonoma 15-50 sneaker is available in the U.S., we’ll have to wait and see if this automotive variant will make its way stateside.
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