Most of the stories about ESG and sustainability developments highlight things that are attractive – socially, financially and even aesthetically. Shoe company New Balance chose to run down a different path. Really different.
They issued limited release shoes using stuff that was just laying around, like 3,000 soles they found. I won’t attempt to describe the shoes, or even offer adjectives. The message behind the controversial design is right on point – using a phrase I saw somewhere just yesterday (I apologize for the lack of proper attribution, but I can’t find it today), “waste is only waste if you let it be waste.” New Balance decided to extract direct financial value and some buzz from what could be called underutilized assets. Granted, this limited release isn’t likely to have a material impact on the company’s financials (yes, I HAD to do that…).
