Did you know that there are already shoe soles made from worn tennis balls?
is a Portuguese company that produces them. ISI Soles developed the
process and already sells ecological shoe soles made from recycled
tennis players use 3 tennis balls per game or practice session. After
this period, the balls reach the end of their life cycle. 300 million
tennis balls are manufactured each year. At the moment, having no
alternative to recycling, the balls end up being sent to landfills
Soles, a company based in Portugal, Felgueiras, dedicated to the
production of shoe soles, studied the problem. After several
laboratory tests, ecological shoe soles were developed out of
recycled tennis balls. The tennis balls are crushed in a mill. A
mixture is made with cork shavings -also derived from waste wine
stoppers- and thermoplastic (TR), and afterwards those are injected
was a challenge launched by a Dutch customer, represented in Portugal
by Raul Paiva, and we accepted that challenge. Several tests were
carried out, with the combination of different materials, in order to
achieve a sole that meets all the requirements and chemical and
physical properties. A sole that is comfortable, durable and
Mendes, CEO of ISI Soles. The shoes are now in production at the
concern and sustainability are crucial for ISI Soles, which adopts
sustainable production principles and uses eco-efficiency as a
reference for all operations carried out. An example of this is the
line of Vegan soles, which received the “Peta - Approved Vegan”
certification, as well as soles composed of bio-based or
Soles obtained certification for its management system integrated by
the ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards, having been the first
Portuguese shoe soles company to be recognized for the best
international practice at an environmental level.