Adidas has revealed a mycelium leather version of its classic Stan Smith trainers, becoming the latest in a flurry of brands creating products from the sustainable leather alternative.
The concept shoe has an upper grown in a lab from mycelium – the spiderweb-like filament structure that fungi use to grow much like the roots of a tree.
Sheets of the material were grown over the course of two weeks and then tanned and dyed to create a mycelium leather called Mylo, which was originally unveiled by US biotechnology company Bolt Threads in 2018.
The material has now been refined in collaboration with Adidas to make it fit for its first application in high-performance footwear.
