ASICS and Japanese furniture brand Karimoku New Standard (KNS) are setting a new standard for circular design in footwear. The partnership has found a new purpose for ASICS deadstock footwear by transforming their foam components into cushioning for contemporary furniture collection. For the collection, KNS and ASICS use unused and sample footwear originally destined for disposal and apply the technology developed for ASICS’ NEOCURVE shoes to recover ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) foam. The shoes are decommissioned, crushed and sorted to extract the foam, which is then blended with cotton and combined with a three-millimetre sheet of compressed foam. The result is a hybrid structure that balances softness and durability to create a material that is suitable for everyday comfort.
The project emerged from a practical design challenge to create comfortable seating for the ASICS’ Tokyo office. The challenge evolved from material experimentation and repeated prototyping to create a cushioning system that effectively translates athletic footwear material into furniture design.The unconventional cross-industry partnership has resulted in a new opportunities for the apparel and footwear industries to give discarded, end-of-life and used products new value and commercial opportunities through considered design and material innovation.
