ASICS today announced the launch of the “Edo Era Tribute Pack,” a line of running and SportStyle shoes that incorporate recycled polyester made from PET bottles in the shoe upper material. The collection will roll beginning April 24.

The Edo Era Tribute Pack will feature 10 classic ASICS shoe models. The performance running category will include: GT-2000 8, Glideride, Roadblast, Novablast,Gel-Cumulus 22 and Gel-Pulse 12.

The SportStyle category will feature: Gel-Lyte XXX, Gel-Quantum 180 5, Gel-Quantum 90 and Lyte Classic.  

The latest collection highlights ASICS’ continued pledge to sustainability by paying homage to the eco-friendly practices of Edo (present day Tokyo) from the 17^th to 19^thcenturies. It was during that period that re-using and recycling was integral to life in Japan, where everything was viewed as a valuable resource, from old clothes and used paper, to worn-out pans and broken ceramic items, to candle wax drippings and more. 

The uppers of the collection’s six performance running shoe models and four SportStyle offerings employ recycled polyester fibers made from a total of around 300,000 PET bottles. These items are part of the first stage of ASICS’ push to switch to 100 percent recycled polyester fibers in all of its uppers by 2030 to help combat climate change.

The graphics for the uppers incorporate a combination of two Edo Era lettering styles. One lettering style is yose moji, typically used for posters and flyers. The other is kakuji, which are thick, squared characters, often featured on scraps of paper that congregants often posted on the gates of shrines and temples.

 ASICS will also be using 100 percent recycled paper for each shoe box, featuring 10 percent less material than standard designs, and will also transition from oil-based inks to water-based in order to cut ink usage by half. ASICS’ use of these sustainable shoe boxes will expand beginning in 2021, cutting ASICS’ annual CO2 emissions by approximately 1200 metric tons.