Sportswear brand Puma has partnered with social impact network The First Mile to create a new training collection, each item in which integrates a minimum of 83 per cent recycled polyester yarn.
The First Mile is an initiative which spans Taiwan, Honduras and Haiti, focusing on collecting plastic bottles for reuse and reducing pollution.
These bottles will now be mechanically recycled and utilised in Puma’s latest athletic apparel collection and will support local communities exponentially.
Whilst the social benefits are plain to see, this partnership has also been formed on the basis that it can tackle the effects of plastic pollution across these Asian nations. It’s estimated that 40 tonnes of plastic waste have been expelled from landfill sites and the oceans through their use in the apparel which Puma will sell this year alone.
“This roughly translates into 1,980,286 plastic bottles being reused,” estimates Stefan Seidel, Puma’s head of corporate sustainability. “The pieces from this co-branded training collection range from shoes, tees, shorts, pants and jackets—all the apparel is made of at least 83 per cent to even 100 per cent from the more sustainable yarn sourced from First Mile.”
The Puma x First Mile training collection will retail from 21 February and is to be available globally.
“We hope that whoever buys this collection feels good about this purchase, not just in terms of choosing something that uses sustainable material, but knowing that those entrepreneurs in the First Mile are being connected to this product because it’s their material going into it,” said Kelsey Halling, head of partnerships at First Mile. “The more we can connect that last mile with the first mile, the easier this sustainable movement will be able to continue.”
