NRG Creates a Sneaker Constructed From Repurposed CO2

A year ago, the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE was set into motion. It is a $20 million USD competition that invited teams to submit business proposals on converting carbon emissions into something useful. The winner of that award transformed greenhouse gas into a sneaker called NRG. The company has since brought on board design engineer and inventor Marcel Botha, and shoe designer D’Wayne Edwards (one of the designers behind the Air Jordan and founder of the Pensole Footwear Academy) to develop the prototype.

The NRG sneaker features captured CO2 in the sneaker’s foam, which is created by NRG. It captures CO2 that would normally be admitted into the atmosphere, and mixes it with a proprietary catalyst to create a tactile “foam” a couple of hours later. The entire XPRIZE platform hopes that in the future CO2 can be used to create a range of other products. Check out the video below to learn more.