Nike x Eilish

Eilish first joined Nike’s artist roster last year. She kicked off the collaboration with a range of leather-free vegan Air Jordans, featuring her signature slime green color.  

In their latest collaboration, Eilish puts her own unique spin on the iconic Nike Air Force 1s.  

The new sneakers – featuring a neutral mushroom color palette – are made from a synthetic nubuck leather material, derived from 80 percent recycled materials, including 100 percent recycled polyester. 

Similar to past releases, the sneakers channel Eilish’s own oversized aesthetic, featuring chunky mid-foot straps. The collection showcases a total of four chunky straps covering the sneaker’s laces, a look that is inspired by two other Nike staples, the Alpha Force Low and Air Trainer 3.

The sneaker also features a fifth strap that goes around the ankle in the high-top version of the vegan-friendly AF1s.

Eilish’s stick-figure Blohsh logo is displayed on the lace deubrés and the Nike Air logos appear as usual over the tongue and heel. The insoles are made with cork and embossed with lyrics from her song Billie Bossa Nova: “It’s hard to stop it once it starts.”

“The challenge and opportunity with this collection was to respect the originals, but make them my own. It was also important for me to mix in environmentally preferred materials where we could and present them in a way that felt fresh,” Eilish shared in a press release.

New apparel collection

The Nike x Billie collaboration also features a new range of matching mushroom-colored apparel in her signature oversized style.

The clothing range includes a fleece hoodie, t-shirt, and sweatpants, embellished with subtle silicone Billie Ellish graphics and the iconic Nike logo turned on its side, pointing straight upwards.

Cruelty is never in style

Beyond Eilish’s music career, she’s an avid activist working to promote sustainability and veganism. She uses her platform to influence the fashion industry as a whole to recognize that cruelty is never in style. 

PETA has also recognized Eilish’s work, naming her its “Person Of The Year” in 2021. President of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, previously shared: “PETA is happier than ever to celebrate her for seizing every opportunity to point out that vegan fashion and foods are kinder to the animals and the planet we share with them.”

The new Nike x Billie collection is now available on Nike’s website.

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Protesters gathered at Nike’s stores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane over the weekend to urge the company to switch to vegan alternatives.

Nike is the largest buyer of kangaroo leather, according to a press release from the Animal Justice Party NSW (New South Wales, the state Sydney is located in). 

More than 40,000 kangaroos are killed every month for this reason in NSW alone, the party says. The figure does not include kangaroos killed by farmers, from recreational hunting, as roadkill, or joeys, whose deaths are not counted.

Notably, even surviving joeys suffer, according to conservation biologist Associate Professor Daniel Ramp. Ramp says joeys who saw their mob being hunted stopped “exhibiting play behavior” after the fact. Animal Justice Party members named the information “heartbreaking.”

Protests

The group was joined by more than 15 international and national organizations on the weekend for the Nike-focused animal protection campaign. 

“Anyone who buys or sells kangaroo leather can’t escape this simple fact: the commercial kangaroo killing industry is industrialized, legalized animal abuse,” Animal Justice Party’s lead senate candidate, Darren Brollo, said at the protest. 

“It is no different to the bludgeoning of baby harp seals overseas that Australians are often quick to detest. The massacre of our native animals is a terrible price to pay for a pair of shoes,” he added.

In a separate statement, MP Mark Pearson named the industry profit-driven, cruel, and environmentally destructive.

“Nike must take ownership of its contribution to the bludgeoning of thousands of joeys to death every night, and the regional extinction of kangaroos already happening across Australia,” Pearson said. 

It’s been long-accepted that Australia is home to an abundance of kangaroos, which only inhabit a handful of countries. But a recent Parliamentary Inquiry confirmed that the commercial industry is “driving kangaroos to extinction,” Animal Justice Party’s press release says. 

One Liberal MP, who sat in on the inquiry, had a “crisis of conscience,” it adds, and took their concerns to the media. 

Person continued in his statement: “There are countless plant-based alternatives to animal skin leather, and Nike has the chance to lead the way in developing the world’s best vegan football boots that are better for the planet and all animals.”

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Vegan Nike sneakers

The musician, who is vegan herself, designed the sneakers with sustainability in mind. As well as being leather-free, the shoes contain more than 20 percent recycled material.

The Eilish collab resulted in a pair of tan-colored Air Jordan 15 sneakers. 

Eilish told Nike, per Page Six, that the Air Jordan 15 has been her favorite style ‘since [she] knew what Jordans were’. 

“When I got them … I looked at them as if they were $1 million sitting right in front of me,” she said.

“This is not a popular shoe and I don’t give a f*ck,” she added. “Because what you feel about something you love deeply is all that matters in the world.”

The seven-time Grammy Award-winner also designed new Air Jordan 1 KOs, available in the star’s signature slime green color. 

“This color is such a classic, stupid, little ‘old me’ thing, I guess. I really wanted to kind of have almost like an ode to myself … this was me, for a while,” Eilish explained.

She told Nike that the style’s shape goes ‘with everything’.

“… With pants, with shorts, with dresses, with skirts … I love the way they make your legs look,” she said.

Both pairs come complete with Eilish’s Bloshsh logo, which she designed at just 14 or 15 (reports on her exact age vary).

Billie Eilish and vegan fashion

The collaboration isn’t Eilish’s first foray into vegan fashion. Just last week, the entertainer persuaded designer Oscar de la Renta to stop using fur in its designs. 

In return, she agreed to wear one of the label’s gowns – which came with a 15-foot train – to the Met Gala.

“I’m honored to have been a catalyst and to have been heard on this matter,” she said about the move.

Eilish’s new Air Jordans launch on September 27 on store.billieeilish.com and September 30 on the Nike SNKRS app. 

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Moreover, it marks aims to become ‘zero carbon and zero waste’. As a result, each pair is made from around 20 percent recycled materials.

Move To Zero range

Included in the range is the new silhouette, Nike Crater Impact. Additionally, the beloved Air Force 1, Blazer Mid and Air Max have been transformed as part of the Plant Cork Pack.

These updated designs have outsoles crafted by recycled cork from the wine industry. The cork is then infused into the rubber. Nike says they’re inspired by ‘the natural world’.

The Air VaporMax 2021 is, the brand claims, one if its ‘most sustainable shoes to date’. This is because it’s made with over 50 percent recycled content by weight.

Also, Move To Zero features the ‘highly breathable’ Air Zoom SuperRep 2 Next Nature and Nike Victory G Lite.

Environmentally friendly

‘We’ve been making big moves in how we source, process, and manufacture our materials because it’s what we’re made of that counts’, the company announced.

Nike added: “By reusing existing plastics, yarns and textiles, we significantly reduce our emissions. Our goal is to use as many recycled materials as possible without compromising on performance, durability and style.”

“…Pushing the edges of design and Nike heritage, the latest summer offerings in Nike’s Move to Zero journey carve out reimagined lifestyle silhouettes and grow further into performance footwear.”

Nike also utilized plastic bottles and recycled nylon. All the cotton used in the shoes is sustainable, certified organic, and soured through the non-profit Better Cotton Initiative.

Low-impact sneakers

Earlier this year, Nike unveiled a low-carbon footprint sneaker collection, Space Hippie.

Chief Design Officer John Hoke said the range ‘changed the way we look at materials’, and ‘changed the way that we look at the aesthetics of our product’.

It is not the only brand using environmentally friendly materials. Actor Jason Momoa launched vegan sneakers made from algae. Moreover, big brands including H&M and Adidas have unveiled their own ‘sustainable’ shoes too.

You can order some of shoes via Nike’s website, though more designs are yet to be released and debut this summer

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Gavin Polone – producer of Gilmore Girls – and Emmy-winning sports editor Derek Ambrosi have partnered to create the film’.

Using reverse sequencing, the film begins with a football player’s boot kicking a ball into a goal. Then, it chronologically looks back through the retail supply chain and manufacturing process, to the Australian wildlands where kangaroos are shot and stripped of their skin.

‘Well-intentioned consumers’

Polone said: “I wanted to expose the bloody truth that’s being hidden from well-intentioned consumers who may have no idea how their ‘K-leather’ shoes are being made.

“Nike can no longer hide their responsibility for this atrocity.”

‘They urgently need help’

Moreover, the film will air on three continents and has already garnered political support. 

Australian politician Mark Pearson adds: “It’s fantastic to see Hollywood heavyweights getting behind the plight of the kangaroo because they urgently need help.

“A lot of people don’t even know that kangaroo populations are declining, let alone that Australia kills its own national emblem for profit.

He also described the short film as an ‘eye-opener for people all across the world’.

Keep up to date with the latest vegan news…

Urge Nike to ditch kangaroo leather

Moreover, a petition calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrisson to ban kangaroo leather has already attracted thousands of signatures.

It states: “Kangaroos are one of Australia’s most iconic, loved and unique animals. They are also the victims of the largest commercial slaughter of land-based wildlife on the planet.”

“The World wept for our wildlife after the 2019 Black Summer bushfires. And yet, here in Australia, it was business as usual for the commercial kangaroo industry. “

The petition also says: “State and Federal Governments saw no problem with the continued slaughter of kangaroos. Some states – including NSW – increased their commercial slaughter quotas.

You can sign the petition urging Nike to ditch kangaroo leather here

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This year, Nike launched its ‘lowest carbon footprint‘ sneaker made from ‘scrap materials and announced it believes the future of its products will be ‘circular’.

But which Nike sneakers are vegan? And how can you design your own? Here are three pairs that allow for all-vegan material construction, picked out by avid sneaker fan The Air Vegan. 

1. Air Max 1’s

Nike finally began to clearly mark most of the Air Max 1’s as synthetic suede. 

With the general releases, the options are not always leather-free. Inconsistencies arise mostly with collaboration models and special editions.  However, the ‘AIR VGN’ Air Max 1 design is made of synthetic suede. There’s a full range of colors in this silhouette that let you run wild and design a fully animal-friendly pair of your own…

2. Air Max 95’s

If you utilize the ‘Synthetic Suede’ options of the AIR MAX 95 on the U.S Nike site, you’ll be able to design an animal-free pair of the classic AIR MAX 95. 

The Air Vegan designed his to mimic a gradient that symbolizes the surface layers of the earth. 

3. Blazer Mid’s

There are many material options for those, but if you select ‘canvas’ on every possible panel, you’ll be on a path to a fully vegan Blazer Mid. 

When yours arrive, you might be confused by Nike’s somewhat surprising choice to utilize a ‘leather’ material in the inner lining without offering the consumer any clear choice for that panel. But rest easy, the lining is synthetic leather. 

Misconceptions

While brands continue to operate amidst an opaque veil of material details, the most common misconception is that Nike uses adhesive with animal products. 

However, It’s been almost two decades since that was true- the brand relies on a water-based, animal-free adhesive for these customs and all of their sneaker releases. 

You can follow The Air Vegan on Instagram here

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Sportswear giant Nike has announced the launch of its ‘lowest carbon footprint’ sneakers, made from ‘scrap materials’.

The Space Hippie Collection, which is made up of four different styles, features uppers made from recycled bottles, T-shirts, and yarn scraps.

For cushioning, the sneakers use factory scraps and reprocessed foam that produces around half the CO2 emissions compared to typical Nike foams.

‘The villain of trash’

Chief Design Officer at Nike John Hoke, said: “Space Hippie is an idea. It is about figuring out how to make the most with the least material, the least energy, and the least carbon.

“I’d say Space Hippie attacks the villain of trash. It’s changed the way we look at materials, it’s changed the way that we look at the aesthetics of our product. It’s changed how we approach putting product together.”

‘The entire process’

Seana Hannah, Vice President NXT Sustainable Innovation at Nike added: “We believe the future for products will be circular.

“We must think about the entire process: how we design it, how we make it, how we use it, how we reuse it and how we cut out waste at every step. These are the fundamentals of a circular mindset that inform best practices.”

The Space Hippie collection will debut in Spring for Nike members in SNKRS and SNEAKERS, as well as at Nike House of Innovation flagship locations and select retailers

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An advert promoting NBA star Kyrie Irving’s new line of trainers shows the star tout the benefits of a plant-based diet.

The Boston Celtics athlete first spoke about the benefits of his new diet in October, saying: “This season I’ve been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from all the animals and all that. I had to get away from that.”

He added that his energy was ‘up’ and ‘[his] body feels amazing’.

Irving is one of a number of top athletes who has switched to a plant-based diet in 2017 – including F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, and fellow NBA star Jahil Okafor.

Advert

In the ad, Irving says: “This is my world – and these are my shoes – Kyrie 4.”

Irving changes into his team strip, and shows off his dribbling skills, before slam dunking the ball.

“Let’s see that backwards,” he says, before the image rewinds.

When asked how he does it, he replies: “Simple – plant-based diet.”

Sadly, the shoes are not vegan-friendly. According to Nike’s website: “Areas of premium suede add durability.”

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The release of a vegan Nike shoe in a store in Virginia was canceled this week after hundreds of people swarmed the outlet and police had to be called to deal with the crowds.

More than 500 people queued to attend the release of the popular limited-edition shoe, which was designed by vegan Virginia native Sean Wotherspoon.

The scheduled release of the animal-free sneaker – known as the Airmax 97-one – even saw some fans camping outside for several days.

Shoes

Wotherspoon won Nike’s inaugural Vote Forward contest earlier this year, in which the public voted on 12 re-invented styles of the brand’s classic Air Max shoe.

The footwear item features a velour interior and a multi-colored corduroy exterior.

The Richmond store is set to post another release date on social media.

The shoe will be released globally in March.

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