Adidas ambassadors Steph Claire Smith and Nathan Cleary will front the activewear brand’s fifth ‘Run For The Oceans’ event.
Taking place on Bondi South Park on June 4, the event is part of a global initiative to help end plastic waste with Parley cleaning up the equivalent of one plastic bottle per 10 minutes of running.
Since 2017, Adidas and Parley’s Run for the Oceans has recorded over 8.2 million runners worldwide, running a combined total of more than 81.7 million km.
Since the beginning of their partnership in 2015, adidas has made more than 50 million pairs of shoes with Parley Ocean Plastic and close to 18 million pairs in 2021 alone - this includes plastic waste intercepted from beaches and coastal communities.
Adidas SVP Sustainability Katja Schreiber said the brand is committed to supporting the project.
“Time is against us in the race to help end plastic waste, so we’re pushing harder and with more focus than ever before.
“Just like how this is an industry-wide problem, it requires industry-wide solutions, because sustainability is a team sport.
“By uniting our sporting community for this challenge, we can inspire real action against plastic waste by giving people an experience where their actions and way of being active contributes towards cleaning up the ocean.
“It’s important that our own brand commitments reflect the situation with which we are faced and that’s why we’ve committed to our goal of replacing virgin polyester with recycled polyester in our products by 2024 wherever possible.”
For 2022, adidas and Parley have announced the launch of their first ever lower footprint concept, Adizero X Parley and Ultraboost 22 X Parley.
Parley CEO Cyrill Gutsch confirmed Adidas first signed a contract to support Parley as founding partner seven years ago.
“With this decision, the three stripes showed the courage to face an epic threat: The Plastic Crisis. Millions of people have supported us since, with action and by buying products made with Parley Ocean Plastic® , a material we invented to fund our work,” Gutsch said.
“These products became Symbols of Change, flags that carry an optimistic message. We can end the crisis by cleaning up our planet, by inventing new materials and most importantly, by changing our minds.
“Today, plastic is still threatening life. But billions of people now know how harmful it is. Run for the Oceans is the moment where we turn awareness into action, where we grow our movement even bigger.”