Athletic Shoes

Photo Source: Kris Kros

Give those old athletic sneakers a new life by recycling them through Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program.  Currently Nike has over 300 drop of bins around the world to collect any brand of athletic shoe for recycling.  Since 1990, Nike has saved over 22 million shoes from the world’s landfills.

At the Nike’s Recycling Center, the shoes are taken apart and separated by material – upper fabric, midsole foam and outsole rubber.  This material is ground up, purified and aptly named Nike Grind.   Each raw material grind gets a second life as various sporting surfaces. 

• Nike Grind Rubber (made from the shoe’s outsole) is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing and various consumer products.
• Nike Grind Foam (made from the shoe’s midsole) is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts.
• Nike Grind Upper (made from the shoe’s upper fabric) is used in the creation of cushion pads for indoor basketball, volleyball courts and equestrian surfacing products.

For more information on Nike’s Sustainability initiative, click here.