Introducing the adidas Stan Smith MyloTM
Bolt Threads and our consortium partners have banded together to step into the future with products made from Mylo™. This April, consortium partner adidas turned that future into a reality with the new Stan Smith Mylo – an homage to their classic line and the first-ever shoe made from our mycelium-based Mylo™ material. Even better: The Stan Smith Mylo will be available in a limited drop by our partners at adidas with more details to come.
Creating a brand new material like Mylo was an intriguing challenge, particularly with the aim of making it accessible for makers around the world. From experimentation with mycelium to establishing a sustainable, global supply chain, optimizing Mylo has taken years and more than 4,000 iterations to achieve the soft, supple hand and performance it has today. It’s been a multifaceted, joint process to turn Mylo into products that can sustain real use – like the approximately 10,000-plus times a shoe bends every day.
“Mylo has the strength and performance it does today thanks to the guidance and deep technical expertise of the adidas team in making great footwear,” said Jamie Bainbridge, VP of Product at Bolt Threads. Adidas’s early, critical feedback was part of ensuring Mylo’s fit for the Stan Smith silhouette.
And it was no coincidence that the Stan Smith is the first adidas shoe to feature Mylo material. As one of adidas’s best-selling silhouettes, the Stan Smith Mylo offers an accelerated opportunity to incorporate this industry-changing bio-based material into retail products. And streetwear is just one of many applications coming down the pipeline for Mylo.
Crafting contemporary, sustainable fashion like this isn’t just about getting a pretty picture. Adidas has been working behind the scenes to implement its “three loop” strategy of sustainability, developing items that either use recycled materials, can be recycled, or are made with nature. The last of these, the “regenerative loop”, is the basis for products like the Stan Smith Mylo, made using infinitely renewable mycelium. With the upcoming, limited release of the Stan Smith Mylo, this strategy is proof-positive that sustainable, nature-based products are possible – not just in the future, but today. Follow @mylo_unleather on Instagram and sign up for our email list to keep up to date on all things Bolt Threads and Mylo.