Nike Rethinks Its Shoeboxes To Cut Packaging Waste By Half
Ever realized how your shoes arrive doubled-wrapped in cardboard boxes? Well, Rich Hastings, Nike’s custom shoebox designer, has too.
“Packaging is sometimes an afterthought. But what people may not realize is that it can have a huge impact on the environment,” said the brand’s veteran employee.
While working on the 2020 release of Space Hippie, a series of sneakers that were made from 25% to 50% recycled materials, Hastings and his team thought up the idea of a shoebox that would match Nike’s low-impact initiatives.
Enter the ‘One Box’, a sustainable system that ships a shoe directly in its own container, rather than using an extra shipping box.
“It was meant to be a limited release. But the shoes were so popular, we had to scale up and fast. We got a lot of feedback that the box wasn’t durable enough to withstand the rigors of shipping, so we got to work updating it,” Hastings explained.
In order to create a solution that would stand up against industry conventions, the team engineered the ‘one box’ to go through crush tests, ensuring that it would survive the journey to doorsteps around the world.
Now, the invention has reached an iteration in which it can house almost any Nike shoe, ditching the need for the sportswear giant to use an outer box or any extra packaging. When compared to traditional packaging, the ‘one box’ reduces waste by 51% for single online orders, regardless of which model shoe is sold.
Instead of prominent branding on the box, Hastings chose to go for a subdued look, not wanting porch pirates to know there was a pair of shiny, new Nike shoes sitting on your stoop.
Plus, rather than using lots of tape, the lid of the box is secured with an adhesive strip, with an additional strip provided to the customer if they need to reseal the box for returns.
Last but not least, the team turned to white ink that wouldn’t stain the white sole of sneakers, using a printing method that would use less water to keep the overall footprint of the ‘one box’ low.
While this doesn’t mean the ‘one box’ will take over all of Nike’s existing shoeboxes at the moment, Hastings said the design could still evolve as part of the brand’s goal to reduce product packaging, even when it comes to paper that’s used to stuff the toes of shoes, or plastic bags that seal apparel pieces.
“We’re really the leaders in this space, but we’re just getting started,” summed up Erica Swanson, Senior Director of Sustainable Product Operations.
