Fuelling Possibilities for Planet
INSIGHT OVERVIEW:
The audience expects us to be sustainable, it is not something they’ll congratulate us on.
Being honest and transparent about what we’re doing and what we’re not doing yet is key.
The realm of sustainability is vast and all-encompassing, it’s expected across all facets of the business.
Using our voice to speak up and speak out is powerful; they want us to educate and inspire.
Creating products that are timeless and iconic, as well as durable, is a form of sustainable design.
To make sustainable products the norm, we have to make our message seamless.
Sustainability can never negate design; hype products can be sustainable without looking sustainable.
As a brand, we can lead and inspire in this space.
When it comes to sustainability, the emphasis is on us. The audience, across age groups, expect brands to use their power to make a difference in this realm. This is non-negotiable. A brand as big as us has to be seen progressing in this area, although it is very much sustainable progress not perfection, [yet]. Importantly, they do not expect us to know all the answers; they’re aware the realm is complex and that we’re all still learning within it, together. However, as long as we’re truthful and transparent about where we’re at, what we’re trying to do and how we’re going to try and do that - we will earn the respect and trust of the audience overall.
The scale and scope of sustainability is not limited to design. As an audience, they find it hard to agree on a definition of sustainability; there is no one definitive answer that we can present. However, they are in agreement about the realm and range of what sustainability is and what it constitutes. For them, sustainability is all-encompassing: it is about who made the product, how they were paid, the working conditions, the transport of product, the water waste, how things were shipped: everything. In this sense, it must be considered across all areas of the business, all departments, all facets of the brand, ensuring we cover audience expectations around scale and scope overall.
One clear way in which we can use our power to make a difference is to speak up and speak out. For the Originals of Culture and consumers, they want us to use our voice to bring awareness to issues of the planet and the possibilities we have to change things. Alongside this, since we’re all learning together, it’s also about sharing our learnings with the Originals of Culture, helping people help the planet. For instance, Raj - co-founder of Dubai’s largest Streetwear festival, Sole DXB, is looking to create a carbon-neutral event in the near future [he’s already producing their first carbon-neutral magazine]. As he sees it, a brand like adidas bringing their knowledge to that table is one way of us using our power to make a difference in a way that is impactful and educational for the audience [people] and planet. Being honest & transparent, in all that we do, is the only way to do this…
When it comes to looking at how we create, there are simple and clear-cut actions we need to remember.
Products that last, that are of good quality, that are durable, are inherently sustainable.
Products that are iconic and timeless can replace the culture of conspicuous consumption.
We need to create things people want to keep, that they want to wear time and time again.
Hype, as a model, can be sustainable. We simply need to make sustainable products hype.
Make basics sustainable, why can’t a black cotton tee be ‘eco’? The more eco basics, the better.
We have to drop the need for the audience to know that something is sustainable. Across the industry we see products being made that look sustainable; we need to drop this ‘necessity for the consumer to know’; this proverbial request for a pat-on-the-back. The Parley collaboration, for sure, was admired for its inventiveness, we hear this in research time and time again. However, the audience didn’t wear it because the sustainable story of the shoe shouted over the design. It looked like the ocean, but it didn’t need to. They just want a beautiful shoe that’s sustainable without shouting about it.
To make people, to make the masses, consume sustainability impactfully, we have to drop our need for them to know that we’ve produced a sustainable product. To make sustainable products the norm, we have to make the message seamless. We should not shout about sustainability; we should just be sustainable. It is our pride that means we need things to ‘look’ sustainable, a need to show off our hard work. No one needs an innovative sustainable sneaker to look like the ocean. They need an amazing looking sneaker that came from recycling and repurposing ocean plastics that tells the story somewhere other than through the design. Sustainability is expected and cannot negate design nor aesthetics. Bringing sustainability to the masses ‘invisibly’, ‘inherently’, through mechanics they trust, is a form of education.