Manufacturing of shoes releases many toxins, and chemicals during the first and last steps in the shoe life cycle. These are harmful to both wildlife and humans and cause many health problems. Also, shoe manufacturing produces large amounts of carbon dioxide resulting in climatic change and global warming.

Paul Pogba and Adidas by Stella McCartney produced the sports giant’s first 100% vegan football boot, a limited-edition Predator Freak gender-neutral boot. A vegan boot is environmentally friendly and generally made without using leather which uses hazardous tanning chemicals.

The boots combine the “distinct design, innovation and sustainable values of Stella McCartney with the expressive style and elite performance requirements” of Pogba.

They also added that the origin of the collaboration stems from a conversation between Pogba and McCartney as part of Adidas’s The Huddle content series, back in May 2020.

Hosted during the lockdown, their Huddle “not only revealed their mutual passion for fashion, sport and brand-building but also served to sow the seeds for this pioneering football-fashion co-creation”.

The boots come with a white Primeknit upper adorned with leopard and Earth Protector graphics. Adidas Demonskin rubber spikes have been calibrated by a “computer algorithm to improve ball control and swerve”.

The boot also uses recycled materials, perfectly fusing the world of fashion and football, showing how we can continue to create with the planet in mind.

Phopto by Thomas Serer on Unsplash