Crash-proven footwear: Asics debuts sneakers made from recycled airbags

Being carbon-neutral and eco-friendly is a big thing in the automotive industry, with many brands and sub-brands from carmakers joining the bandwagon.

One such company is Asics, which partnered with automotive parts supplier Toyoda Gosei to make sneakers out of old airbag fabric.

What is Toyoda Gosei?

If you don’t know about Toyoda Gosei, it was a company established in 1949.

It specializes in minor car parts like weatherstripping, fuel tank components, LEDs, dashboards and consoles and airbags. It is also part of the Toyota Group, choosing to retain the proper spelling of the family surname by maintaining the “D.”

Aside from this, the company supplies other car brands aside from Toyota.

Airbags to footwear

According to Toyoda Gosei, the fabric used in airbags is challenging to recycle, with scraps often thrown out to the dump. 

As such, the Japanese parts maker has partnered with sportswear company Asics to transform the airbag fabric scraps into parts of a sneaker – the Gel Sonoma 15-50.

The main difference between the regular sneaker and the one made with airbag scraps is the white fabric used to make the shoe's upper section. It is made from prototype airbags detonated during the development testing phase. 

The red lines and numbers are the only hints that the fabric used was once an airbag.

And as a hidden easter egg, an illustration of a detonating airbag can be seen on the shoe's insole to distinguish it from the regular model. 

The airbag sneaker has already gone on sale in Japan with a price of $128 or roughly ₱7,000 as of press time. 

The Asics Gel Sonoma airbag sneakers are also on sale in the U.S. However, whether these will be available in other markets is still determined.

Are these sneakers a cop or a drop for you?