Allie’s Answers

My friend Dash does an awesome job of keeping me supplied with green links and green news stories (if you look you’ll see Thanks, Dash! peppered around the site at the bottom of my stories).

Yesterday he sent me some links about green shoes and a green basketball player and suggested I write a story on it. Since I have a medical condition that causes my brain to shut off at the very mention of sports, I said, “Write it yourself!”  He did. Here it is:

As the saying goes, “the children are the future” and the Phoenix Suns superstar and everyone’s favorite Canadian basketball player, Steve Nash, is a firm believer of this. So much so that in 2001 he formed The Steve Nash Foundation, with the goal of helping kids grow up healthier and smarter.

While the primary purpose of the foundation is enhancing child welfare, Nash is a big proponent of environmentally-friendly living. Check out the “Green The Earth” link here, where the foundation encourages communities to take action and improve their surrounding areas.

Nash does his best to practice what he preaches; both on and off the court. Along with his shoe endorser Nike, Nash now sports the Nike Trash Talk, the “first performance basketball shoe made from manufacturing waste.” Some highlights include:

• A mid-sole that uses scrap-ground foam from factory production
• Laces and sockliners, which use environmentally-preferred materials
• The shoes are packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box
• And an outsole that uses rubber that reduces toxics

In the self-indulgent, ultra-excessive world of professional sports it’s great to see a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player that sees the bigger picture beyond the tricked out Hummers with spinning rims.

Naturally Nike is not the only apparel company jumping on the green bandwagon. Adidas offers a line of casual footwear and outerwear for men and women. Personally, I’m a fan of the Re-Ground Hoodie, which has classic old-school Adidas style while using undyed, unbleached cotton fabric.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Clothes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.