Carbon emissions from Sportswear

 The most used fabrics in that specific category are Cotton, Polyester, Spandex, Nylon.  Cotton needs gigantic amounts of water to be usable (10,000 liters for 1 kilogram of cotton). In addition, that resource is often harvested with fertilisers destructing biodiversity and causing sanitarian crisis in rural regions such as Central Asia. Polyester, Spandex and Nylon are synthetic fabrics derived from petroleum, as we all know, causing large amounts of carbon emissions or harming biodiversity. Those chemical innovations release microfibres which cannot be treated by recycling plants who release them into the sea with dire consequences on the marine environment.

Sneakers are mainly made of petroleum-derived fabrics (Polyester, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) ) which are the heaviest carbon emitting materials in fashion today. As a result the shoe market in 2020 was responsible of 1% of global carbon emission, an exorbitant digit when the air travel market is responsible of 2.5% of global emissions !

Fashion on climate McKinsey

 Carlin creative