Puma and the Fuseproject design firm have released a “clever little bag” design to replace the traditional shoe box, just in time for Earth Day. After three years of planning and designing, the bag is just the first of many projects that will overhaul the brand.
“Rethinking the shoebox is an incredibly complex problem, and the cost of cardboard and the printing waste are huge, given that 80M are shipped from China each year,” Béhar tells FastCompany.com. “Cargo holds in the ships can reach temperatures of 110 degrees for weeks on end, so packaging becomes an enormous problem. This solution protects the shoes, and helps stores to stock them, while saving huge costs in materials.”
The “clever little bag” combines the two packaging components of any shoe sale–the bag and the box–with high-tech ingenuity. Inside the bag fits an interior cardboard scaffolding, which gives it shape and reduces cardboard use by 65%. No tissue paper or plastic elements inside, no laminated cardboard (which interferes with recycling), and the bag itself is made of recycled PET. Very clever indeed!
Puma estimates that the bag will slash water, energy, and fuel consumption during manufacturing alone by 60%–in one year, that comes to a savings of 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, 264,000 gallons of fuel, and 264 gallons of water. Ditching the plastic bags will save 275 tons of plastic, and the lighter shipping weight will save another 132,000 gallons of diesel.
Look for the “clever little bag” to be rolled out next year.