Capsule basketball collection falls right under sustainability standards

Nike’s collections and ventures into sustainability seem to have a futuristic side, first with the Space Hippie and now with the Cosmic Unity.

The Cosmic Unity collection will be available from 26th February both in-store and online globally. The collection consists of 11 pieces of apparel, a basketball, and one sneaker design in three color variations. The collection features The star face of WNBA star A’ja Wilson and it’s going to be their first foray into sustainable activewear. Lately, Nike has been using recycled materials in most of its products comprising footwear and apparel but with the capsule collection it has a more determined sustainability target catering to conscious audiences but they are not satisfied with the coverage and arguing for mentioning issues like transparency, circular business model, workers’ rights.

Nike $150 Cosmic Unity sneaker includes at least 25% of the recycled content by weight. It has been using recycled polyester made from plastic bottles, as trims, lining, tongue, sock liner, cabling system and laces.  Noah Murphy Reinhertz, sustainable design lead in Nike’s  Innovation Kitchen says that there is no universal system for recycling. They need to focus on flexibility and for that, they mix and match yarns in different materials like cotton polyester and traces of rayon together.

Murphy says over the last few years we have seen that iconic products have been infused with sustainable materials and so is Nike moving forward with an “optimistic urgency” to find innovative solutions for their customers. Experts at Nike are stressed over not only using the recycled content but also making it possible to reduce the harmful output of the production, as the concern has been placed by fashion advocacy nonprofit Remake.

The pre-order strategy is being pushed by certain experts, as is adopted by a French brand Maison Cléo which opens its e-commerce site once a week only allowing up to 30 garments to be pre-ordered each time. Experts think that this strategy can help in anticipating demand and reducing waste for Nike although it works on a huge scale so they can figure out some method to conduct that.

Nike says Cosmic Unity footwear is manufactured by a long-term partner in Vietnam. They make sure that proper labor rights and regulations are being formulated over there in the factories. Nike wants its customer to lay their trust in the brand and choose the right option.