Article by Sam Winebaum
Every year over 22 billion shoes are made and 90% plus are never recycled. And that is before we talk about all the rest of of our outdoor gear.
Where do they end up? Landfills and many many millions in the oceans floating for years , ending up on shores, and disintegrating into micro plastics ingested by fish, birds, and other animals.
NNormal, Kilian Jornet’s brand sells shoes and is deeply involved in trying to reduce the impact of shoes and running. In fact their motto is: “Your Path No Trace”
To raise awareness and start the conversation and action, they commissioned their ambassador, filmmaker and artist Matt Romey, to make “No Lost Shoes” a film about those shoes .
NNormal is launching The No Trace Program, a program to capture and recycle/repair our running shoes and other gear before they are lost to the landfills and oceans.
Matt and a team of activists took a 12 hour boat trip to one of the most remote, uninhabited and “unspoiled” places on earth, the shores of Alaska’s the Katami National Park.
The film below is what they found…thousands of shoes washed ashore amid the bears (many bears) and other wildlife and natural beauty.
They collected the ocean plastic and shoes, as much as they could, for recycling.
Will we get rid of shoes for running? No, says Kilian in the film, “We need shoes, rocks are sharp!” but we can do mcc more to reduce our shoe and overall running impact.
Here at RoadTrailRun we donate lightly used shoes to the homeless health center associated with a Boston hospital or give to friends.
The film is amazing in showing the wild natural beauty of the Katami and the striking impact of those shoes washed ashore in all their many colors and states of disintegration filmed and also painted by Matt Romey on site in beautiful images shown in the film.
What will you do to reduce your shoe and impact on the earth while continuing to explore and compete on the foot?
NNormal can help as they have established The No Trace Program network of collection sites to keep those shoes and all your used outdoor gear from getting “lost”.
They will recycle or repair to give it a second life.
To get started click HERE
Screen Capture Images from: “Lost Shoes” a film by Matt Romey
Please Watch “Lost Shoes” (11:47)
1 comment:
This is great! Thanks for sharing.
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