The consistently growing textile industry often brings negative contributions to the environment. Because Nike is a large participant in this manufacturing, many of their processes negatively contribute to the environment. One way the expanding textile industry affects the environment is by increasing its water deficit, climate change, pollution, and fossil fuel and raw material consumption. In addition to this, today’s electronic textile plants spend significant amounts of energy, while also producing a throw-away mindset due to trends founded upon fast fashion and cheap clothing.[1] Although these combined effects can negatively alter the environment, Nike tries to counteract their influence with different projects. One campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured Steve Nash wearing Nike’s Trash Talk Shoe, a shoe that had been constructed in February of 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste that derived from the factory floor. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.[2] Another project Nike has begun is called Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program. This program is Nike’s longest-running program that benefits both the environment and the community by collecting old athletic shoes of any type in order to process and recycle them. The material that is created from the recycled shoes is then used to help create sports surfaces, such as basketball courts, running tracks, and playgrounds.[3]

  1. ^ http://www.emergingtextiles.com/?q=stu&s=TI-green-textiles&c=stu080423-&peu=eu395&pus=us632 Emerging Textiles February 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008
  2. ^ http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003793129&imw=Y BRANDWEEK April 23, 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008
  3. ^ http://www.wickedlocal.com/lexington/news/business/x883026486 Wicked Local April 29, 2008. Retrieved: May 4, 2008