Trash Talk

On Feb 14, 2008 Nike revealed a new shoe called “Nike Trash Talk” which is a shoe made from recycled materials and manufacturing waste which comes as a result of a partnership with Phoenix Suns all-star guard Steve Nash.  Nash was interested in doing something good for the environment and together they put together this shoe which uses leather and synthetic leather waste stitched together for the upper, environmentally preferred rubber and Nike Grind material for the outsole, and scrap-ground foam from the factory for the mid-sole.  I am totally in favor of the message that this puts out to customers and the competition.  This kind of release challenges other companies to keep the same kind of standards in being environment-friendly.  I still wonder how well factories in poor countries are keeping the standards that they say they are – this kind of outsourcing seems to instigate a kind of cutt-throat process that might appear to be following standards, but on the inside things might not be going so swell.  I am going to get more information about how they intend to keep these places on the up-and-up and also keep up to date on some other aspects of design that could be questionable.