Parley x adidas UltraBoost 4.0 'White Carbon Blue'
Colorway: Ftwr White/Carbon Blue/Spirit · Style code: BC0248 · Release date: June 27, 2018 · Price: $397 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Parley x adidas UltraBoost 4.0 (CG3673) · Parley x adidas UltraBoost Mid 'White' (DB3255) · Parley x adidas Wmns UltraBoost ST (AC8207) · Parley x adidas UltraBoost ST 'Carbon' (DB0925) · Parley x adidas UltraBoost Uncaged 'Recycled' (BB4073)
The adidas and Parley partnership was announced in 2015, and the first thing it produced was a prototype shown at the United Nations headquarters in New York that July. That shoe was made in six days, with an upper spun from yarn reclaimed from illegal deep-sea gillnets recovered by Sea Shepherd, nets that had been used in poaching operations targeting toothfish in the Southern Ocean.
What began as a demonstration became a production line. Parley Ocean Plastic, made from plastic waste intercepted on remote coastlines and in coastal communities, is spun into a yarn that adidas knits into Primeknit uppers. The early commercial versions cited a figure of around eleven recycled bottles per pair.
The UltraBoost was the obvious carrier. Its upper is already a single knitted piece, so swapping the fibre changes the material without changing the construction: full-length Boost, moulded heel counter and cage all remain as they are on a standard pair.
This 4.0 runs white with carbon blue worked through the knit, the blue-on-white treatment the Parley releases have used throughout.