Ecological Footprint of Sneakers

Essai Pichataro
ENVL- 4300 Environmental Issues
Dr. Chirenje
Stockton University
Spring 2018
 Abstract
This day in age with industrialization taking off and reaching new standards every day

along with new product being released to help make the lives of people better and more

comfortable. The ongoing excitement of reaching new limits makes it difficult to reflect

sometimes and see how it affects the past. The repercussions that occur with each new product

released seems to be an undermined issue due to most of the focus is on how it benefits

society. In this report we evaluated the environmental impact of a common item that most

people in the world have, a pair of athletic shoe. Breaking it down to five main material groups

that make up a sneaker which include rubber, textile, plastic, leather and metal each group

containing a number of various components. Of the five material groups that make up a

sneaker, three where decided to be reviewed which where the most impactful materials

rubber, plastic, and textiles. Focusing primarily on the components that included both synthetic

and natural rubber, EVA an PVC, and Nylon respectively. The findings were interesting in that

how much a simple pair of sneakers impacted the environment, but to no surprise that

sneakers leave a lot of footprints.

1
 Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

The Sneaker Market………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

The Break Down………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Environmental Impact of Material…………………………………………………………………………………………….7

Rubber…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Plastic……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8

Textiles………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8

Disposal of Sneaker……………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………11

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13

2
Introduction
Sneakers now a day, are as common item to have as it is to own a tooth brush (Statista,

2017). In spring season of 2017, over 249.6 million people in the United States alone went out

of their way to purchase a pair of sneakers (Statista, 2017). That accounts for a little over 3/4 of

the population in the United States. Therefore, you can safely say that out of every 4 people

you know 3 of them are certain to have at least one pair of sneakers and good it would be if

most people only had a one pair of sneakers. Most individuals have more than just a single pair

of sneakers making it more of a staple object to have then a cellular device (Statista, 2017).

Sneakers are such a highly valued itemed because of not only the comfort and improved

physical performance that you may experience from using them but also to accent your

everyday attire and make a fashion statement. Them being as popular and praised as they are

in this current point in time, in a way misleads individuals to only think of the good things that

come from a sneaker, and when a negative idea is brought to their attention about the product,

they find it very difficult to understand and see the issues that they have the potential to create

because they see them as only shoes that bring nothing but joy to the world and comfort to

those that wear them on their feet. It is important to understand the impact that a harmless

pair of sneakers has in the world by examining the process that a pair of sneakers undergo in

order to come about and make it to your feet. The life cycle of the sneaker does not just end

there either, another contributing factor to the damage that a pair of sneakers has on the world

comes from the disposal process of them. These points are among the many points that will be

addressed in order to help spread some insight of the environmental impacts that these

popular objects have. The sneaker market shows no sign of going away, reeling in billions in

revenue every year. It is only projected to grow in in size at exponential rates as the sneaker

3
become more simple to make, the sneaker market has made it clear to the world that it is here

to stay.

The Sneaker Market

To more clearly define the topic of research, what is a sneaker? According to

Chakraborty (2015), a sneaker is nothing else but a nicer word for athletic shoes. Athletic shoes

are simply shoes that are most commonly the type that you find yourself wearing to physical

events i.e. the gym, running, long walks, etc. These types of shoes have a fairly detailed and

eventful history to them but at the same time a young, fairly modern one. Athletic shoes are a

relatively new invention to the world, not dating back further than two-hundred plus years (LA

Research Project, 2013). The beginning of athletics shoes arose mainly due to increase in

interest in the sport of running by the English in the mid to late 18th century. This brought about

the need for further development of shoes to be able to better improve the performance of the

athletes (LA Research Project, 2013). Prior to this, runners mostly wore typical shoes that where

composed of leather material and wooden sole. Which these shoes did not have any release to

them at all and the leather material would not withstand the conditions that runners put their

shoes though, the leather fabric would tend to stretch when in coming in contact to water or

extreme amount of moisture, causing the runner to lose their secure fit in the shoe.

The first breakthrough that led to the begging of the athletic shoe development was

made by Walt Webster and his patented process where he managed to be able to apply rubber

soles to leather boots and shoes in the 1832. This process was used for years till later on in

1892 the release of KEDs by the manufacturing company of Goodyear took the spotlight. KEDs

included the latest development of athletic shoes which was called vulcanization (LA Research

4
Project, 2013). This process revolutionized the shoe game because of its ability to be able to

melt rubber and fabric together. This process leads to lighter more comfortable sneakers, a

huge breakthrough in shoe market that changed the market forever.

After the huge breakthrough of vulcanization, a snowball effect of shoe events

preceded. The market exploded with big corporations begging to work with this new design and

create a sneaker of their own. Chuck Taylors started the trend with their release of “The

Chucks” All stars selling them to athletes of all kinds in the beginning and eventually as a casual

wear shoe (Floyd, 2012). Following Taylor, the next brilliant mind to greatly change the market

of sneakers was when Adolf Dassler, later to be known as the founder of Adidas, began

marketing his athletic sneaker to top tier athlete such as Jesse Owens who took four gold

medals in the Summer Olympics of 1996 (Floyd, 2012). Again, the sneaker market grew far

beyond anybody expectations and continued to grow when more and more companies began

to get involved. As time went on more companies such as New Balance, Nike and Puma began

contributing similar marketing game changers such as Dassler did with his sneakers, gathering

more of people’s attention and getting to the point where currently an average of twenty-three

billion pairs of sneakers are produced a year in the world (World, 2016).

The Break Down

As I stated before, the sneaker market has changed to new extents that no one ever

imagined it would. No one ever imagined that we would reach a point where we would be

producing a yearly average of about twenty–three billion pairs of sneakers a year. As of 2018

the population of the world is totaled to be about 7.5 billion people (Census, 2018). Therefore,

that yearly twenty –three billion is enough to give each person in the world at least 3 pairs of

5
shoes. It should be known that some of these shoes do serve a purpose and are not always a

complete waste of money or space. There are many people out there that require a particular

shoe for a particular purpose. Which then leads to a single person needing multiple shoes to

help them fulfil their daily task. The issues with all these shoes per person is not so much the

fact that they do own so many shoes, it quantity of shoes. The process of making sneakers and

disposing of the product has many areas of improvement and has shown to have a very

impactful carbon foot print. The carbon footprint per shoe adds up to be quite significant when

taking into account the number of shoes that are out there.

A sneaker is composed of a variety of materials. The shoe has two main parts generally

known as the upper which is the primary part that covers the top and side portions of the foot

and the bottom which consists of the portion of the shoe that makes contact with the surface

floor, also known as the sole (Made how, 2009). Between these 2 primary components you will

find that they are composed of five main material groups which include rubber, plastic, leather,

textiles and metals. The rubber group consists of both natural and synthetic rubber, leather also

consists of various forms of livestock primarily bovine. The metal group is mostly composed of

iron, copper, zinc, brass and aluminum. Plastic group contained plastics such as polyurethane

(PU), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), MD, thermoplastics, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene

(PE) and polyethylene terephthalate. Textiles materials where primarily cotton, nylon, polyester

and viscose (Gottfridsson et al, 2015). For simplicity purposes of this report, the primary

focuses will be on the most impactful substances used in both the upper and bottom parts of

the sneaker, those materials being rubber (both synthetic and natural), EVA, PVC, and nylon.

6
Environmental Impacts of Materials

Rubber

There are two forms of rubber used in shoes natural rubber which comes from a milky,

white, liquid sap material that comes from 200 various plants called latex (Sole Collector, 2015).

The primary source of latex for rubber comes from a tree species called Hevea brasiliensis.

Rubber is composed of many thousands of basic C5H8 units, which is the monomer of isoprene,

loosely joined to make long, tangled chains (Woodford, 2017). The other form of rubber used in

shoes is synthetic rubber which is made in chemical plants using petrochemicals as their main

starting point. One of the most common forms of synthetic rubber used is polychloroprene

most commonly referred to as neoprene. Neoprene is made by reacting acetylene and

hydrochloric acid.

Rubber productions generates emissions to air in forms of volatile organic carbons

(VOC) and Carbon dioxide. On top of the emission produced, the production of rubber also

leads to issues with replacement of natural forest and agricultural land with plantations for

latex production (Gottfridsson et al, 2015). I previously stated most rubber is derived from

trees. Which means that we require large amounts of trees to meet the demands of rubber,

these high demands might result in negative changes to the forest such as loss of biodiversity

(Gottfridsson et al. 2015). Another point to consider, is that using crops and plantations for

large economic production can be seen as problematic due to the scarcity of land on earth

(Gottfridsson et al, 2015).

7
Plastics

The two primary plastic used in the production sneakers are PVC and EVA. PVC is made

by taking a unit monomer, usually vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), and linking theses monomers

molecules together in the polymerization process (PVC, 2018). EVA is made by from blended

copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate. When two plastic types are joined in the same

polymer chain, the polymer is called a copolymer (The Shoe, 2016).

The main components in the production of the polymeric material are non-renewable

fossil resources, which in turn result in release of VOC emissions to air (Gottfridsson et al,

2015). At the end of its life stage, incineration of plastics might generate hazardous emissions of

dioxins and furans. Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and

development problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones (EPA,

2017). Furans are very similar to dioxins with the primary difference being that furans have a

different chemical “skeleton” to them. On top of all this, most plastics cannot be degraded

biologically makes the waste challenging to handle which means recycling is preferable, though

frequently difficult carry out (Gottfridsson et al, 2015).

Textiles

Nylon is a type of plastic that is derived from crude oil. It is put through an intensive

chemical process, resulting in the strong, stretchy fibers that make it so useful as fabric (Uren.

2016). Nylons are a family of materials called polyamide, made from reacting carbon based

chemical found in coal and petroleum in a high pressure, heated elements. This chemical

reaction, known as condensation polymerization, forms a large polymer- in form of a sheet

8
nylon. To make nylon fabric for apparel/shoes, nylon sheets are broken into chips, melted and

drawn through a mechanical spinneret to produce individual fibers that are woven into fabrics

(Uren, 2016). No form of nylon is biodegradable, so once you no longer have a need for your

item that contains nylon, it sits in a landfill for at least 30 years (Uren, 2016).

The manufacturing of nylon has several other direct environmental impacts such as

producing greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide, which is 310 times more potent then carbon

dioxide (Uren, 2016). Manufacturing nylon is also very water thirsty process, large amounts of

water are used for cooling the fibers, which can be a source for environmental contamination

and pollution (Uren, 2016).

Disposal of Sneakers

Many sneakers at the end of their life cycle end up getting tossed out along with the

rest of your trash. Which then from there just end up in landfills where they may get filtered

out to get recycled or often incinerated. Which either means they will be in the ground for up

to a thousand years of burned and release harmful greenhouse gases (Shoe Industry, 2018)

Conclusion

The sneaker industry is one that is tough to find any kind of hate because of the great

feeling it is to own a good pair of sneakers. But it is a very underestimated environmental

pollutant. A single shoe may be very insignificant compared to other environment impacting

things but with sufficient numbers the potency of shoes harm grows. As the study has shown

the sneaker market is more than potent enough to deliver the necessary amount to make a

significant impact to the environment. The common sneaker can be broken down to five main

groups rubber, plastic, leather, textile and metals. Each group containing a number of various

9
components that help contribute to the environmental impact of the sneaker. Rubber, plastic

and textile being to most significant and the key ones focused in this report. The environmental

impacts of sneaker are primarily located in the manufacturing and gathering of the materials

used to make a sneaker which cause for the release harmful greenhouse gases along with forest

quality and biodiversity issues. Poor disposal process that most sneakers undergo are also a

part of the environmental impact causing similar disturbances. While the issues stated may

sound down played they are big issues requiring big solutions involving massive changes to how

shoes are manufactured and disposed of. A step in the right direction would be to recycle shoes

as long as possible either by recycling them back to their manufactures which most accept shoe

donations in some sort of way or buy simply keeping the life cycle of a shoe going by passing

them down for others to use when the life cycle with you the consumer has ended.

Environmental impacts of sneakers and shoes in general are not to be under estimated as for

the effects of them can be significant if left alone.

10
References

Weinswig, D. (2016, March 18). Sneaker Culture Fuels $1 Billion Secondary Market. Retrieved
March 06, 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahweinswig/2016/03/18/sneaker-culture-fuels-1-billion-
secondary-market/#216c91707911

Statista. (2017, September). People who bought athletic shoes in the U.S. 2017 | Statistic.
Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/231404/people-who-bought-athletic-shoes-within-the-last-12-
months-usa/

LA, Research Project. (2013, February 11). History of Running Shoes. Retrieved March 07, 2018,
from
https://runningtortoiseandhare.wordpress.com/running-shoes/history-of-running-shoes/

Chakraborty, I.R. (June, 2014). What is the difference between flip-flops, sneakers, loafers, and
floaters? Retrieved March 7, 2018, from
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-flip-flops-sneakers-loafers-and-
floaters

Floyd, E. (2012, August). The History of The Athletic Shoe. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
https://visual.ly/community/infographic/health/history-athletic-shoe

World. (2016, August 30). Worldwide footwear production reached 23.0 billion pairs in 2015.
Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
https://www.worldfootwear.com/news.asp?id=1817&Worldwide_footwear_production_reach
ed_230_billion_pairs_in_2015

Census. (2018). U.S. and World Population Clock Tell us what you think. Retrieved March 08,
2018, from
https://www.census.gov/popclock/

Made how. (2009). Running Shoe. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Running-Shoe.html

Gottfridsson, M., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Environmental Impacts of Shoe Consumption. Retrieved
March 7, 2018, from
http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/218968/218968.pdf

Woodford, C. (2017, August 20). Rubber: A simple introduction. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/rubber.html

11
Sole Collector. (2015, May). The Science behind Sneaker Rubber. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from
https://solecollector.com/news/2015/05/science-behind-sneaker-rubber

PVC. (2018). How is PVC Made. Retrieved March, 2018, from

http://www.pvc.org/en/p/how-is-pvc-made

The Shoe Dog. (2016, July). Shoe Materials: EVA Midsoles. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
http://sneakerfactory.net/sneakers/2016/07/shoe-materials-eva-midsoles/

EPA. (2017, March 22). Learn about Dioxin. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin

Uren, A. (2016, June). Material Guide: How Sustainable is Nylon? Retrieved March 08, 2018,
from
https://goodonyou.eco/material-guide-nylon/

Health Canada. (2005, September). Dioxins and Furans. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/healthy-living/your-
health/environment/dioxins-furans.html

The Shoe Industry. (2018). The Environmental Impact. Retrieved March 7, 2018, from
https://theshoeindustry.weebly.com/environmental-impact.html

Kokaisel, K. (2012, April 11). Life Cycle Analysis of a Running Shoe. Retrieved March 09,
2018, from
https://www.slideshare.net/Earthchild/life-cycle-analysis-of-a-running-shoe

Dave.(2018). Anatomy of a Running Shoe. Retrieved March 07, 2018, from

http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/content/content.jsp?contentId=content1106

12
Appendix
Running Shoe Process Tree

Figure 1- Demonstrate the making of a sneaker from the mining of the material to
disposal provided by Kokaisel (2012).

13