The challenge: combine a Nike designer’s passion for not wasting anything with an athlete’s passion for the environment, take a classic hoop shoe - the Nike Zoom BB II - and redefine it using scrap materials from the factory floor without compromising performance on the court.

The result: the Nike Trash Talk - the first performance basketball shoe that gives a second life to waste generated in the footwear manufacturing process. The Nike Trash Talk, worn by the Phoenix Suns guard, Steve Nash, for the first time on February 14, 2008, meets Nike’s Considered design standards for taking a sustainable approach to performance footwear innovation.

“Any opportunity to promote the environment and preserve our planet is a step in the right direction,” Nash said. “I’m very excited to be one of the first athletes to wear the Nike Trash Talk. I think people will love the shoe, and hopefully by wearing it I can inspire others to try it out as well.”

The shoe tackles the issues of sustainability and environment by answering the question: “What do you do with waste being created during footwear manufacturing?” Scrap from the factory floor is being salvaged from its landfill destination where these materials can take hundreds of years to breakdown. Now, the wear and tear of these materials will be on the court not the cutting room floor.

Nike footwear designer, Kasey Jarvis said: “We were really looking for a ‘here and now’ solution to footwear waste, and creating a performance product using waste materials felt like a very innovative solution. Using Nike’s Considered design ethos we were able to create a shoe that stands up to the stringent on-court performance requirements but is also more environmentally friendly.”

Nike released a limited number of the Nike Trash Talk in three different colorways – two Phoenix Suns colorways (home and away) and one colorway for Nash for the All-Star Game. The All-Star colorway was sold in New York and New Orleans for a suggested retail price of $100. The Phoenix Suns colorway launched April 22, 2008 at the House of Hoops by Footlocker in New York.

Nike's Trash Talk Hits the Big Screen

Steve Nash's viral video was released on Earth Day and features the Nike Trash Talk. An innovative way to tell the shoe's story, Nash’s “Sixty Million Dollar Man” film is a spoof on the old television series, “The Six Million Dollar Man.” Check out the video to catch Nash and his Nike Trash Talks in action.

So, what makes the Nike Trash Talk a Considered shoe?

• The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor using zigzag stitching.
• The midsole uses scrap ground foam from factory production.
• The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind* material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste.
• The Phoenix Suns’ colorways will have shoe laces and sockliners which use environmentally-preferred materials and will be packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box.

Want to know more about Considered design? Here’s the scoop.

Nike’s Considered ethos challenges designers to use environmentally-preferred materials, reduce waste, create sustainable manufacturing processes and use innovation to help reduce our overall environmental impact.

• Nike’s Considered philosophy is about combining product performance with environmental sustainability and giving consideration to how decisions made at the beginning of the product design process impacts sustainability at the other end.
  
• Nike has set aggressive public targets – all Nike footwear will be Considered by 2011, all apparel by 2015 and all equipment by 2020.
  
• Considered product has provided us with so much learning that is has evolved into a design ethos used by Nike to create products that are made with:
• less toxics;
• less waste;
• more environmentally-preferred materials, and;
• sustainable product innovation.