The Nike Circular Innovation Challenge called on designers, engineers, scientists and makers to join us in creating a more circular future. Specifically, we challenged solvers around the world to partner with us in addressing two questions:
Nike Grind is a palette of premium recycled materials recovered from used footwear and manufacturing scrap. To date, Nike Grind materials have been incorporated into more than 1 billion square feet of running tracks, gym floors and other surfaces around the world.
In partnership with OpenIDEO, we sought to inspire the creation of products that improve the lives of the people who use them, while also reducing waste at the same time. We challenged the world to design and prototype promising new uses for Nike Grind materials.
A critical barrier to achieving a more circular economy is the challenge of recovering pure materials from recycled products. In partnership with NineSigma the Material Recovery Challenge sought to push the boundaries of what’s possible for footwear recycling by challenging solvers to help us achieve higher quality material outputs from existing recycling facilities.
It astounded us how creative yet pragmatic and scalable the solutions were. We’re excited to announce our pilot Design with Grind Challenge winner and runner-ups.
Explore the solutions here.
Promising solutions to this challenge came in from all corners of the globe. The standout finalists have provided proof of concepts that showcase different paths to advancing and evolving the footwear recycling process.
We believe these solutions have commercial applications, and some are even being considered for collaborative implementation in our own Nike Grind process.
Explore the winning solution here.