Looking for a gift to your environmentally-conscious loved ones?

Last month, Adidas has debuted a shoe called the Adidas Futurecraft Biofabric, which is made from a synthetic silk molecule called Biosteel® produced by German manufacturer AMSilk. The synthetic silk is produced using a biotechnological process as an alternative to natural silk. It is said to be 15% lighter than conventional silk fibres and is 100% biodegradable. The shoe will only decompose when put in contact with a high concentration of the enzyme proteinase, and it can decompose within 36 hours.

The shoe was unveiled at the renowned Biofabricate Conference in New York as adidas and AMSilk announce a partnership that will explore the use of Biosteel® fiber in performance products on a larger scale. AMSilk GmbH claims to be the world’s first industrial supplier of synthetic silk biopolymers and has its headquarters in Planegg near Munich, Germany.

Biofabricate is an annual summit for the emerging world of grown materials, hosted this year by Parsons School of Design on 5th Avenue, NYC on November 17. Hopefully, I’ll be able to attend this one next year.

For those hardcore renewable chemical fans, I would suggest asking Santa Claus for a hardcopy (or pdf) of our Bio-Materials handbook :).