Marketing and Comms
ASICS Launches Product Carbon-Footprint Labeling

Published 10 months ago. About a 3 minute read.
Image: ASICS

By releasing its product carbon-impact data, ASICS joins a growing number of companies sharing this information to help consumers working to address their environmental impacts make more educated purchasing decisions.

Global sportwear brand ASICS has become the latest company to introduce product carbon-footprint labeling. The landmark 30th iteration of the company’s GEL-KAYANO™ series, released Thursday and available in stores July 1, will be the first of many ASICS products to feature labeling with the total amount of CO2e emissions emitted across the product’s lifecycle.

With the introduction of its product carbon-impact data, ASICS joins fellow footwear giant Allbirds and a growing number of companies from a variety of industries — including food, personal care and even travel — that are sharing this information on their products and offerings to help consumers working to address their environmental impacts to make more educated purchasing decisions. The GEL-KAYANO series has been at the forefront of ASICS’ dedication to transparency in sustainability. The GEL-KAYANO 17 was the prototype of ASICS’ “Lifecycle CO2e emission” research in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology back in 2012. GEL-KAYANO 30 continues this legacy. Not only is it the first ASICS shoe with a label of its lifecycle CO2e emissions — evolved from the original research ASICS completed with MIT — but the shoe’s carbon footprint is also 14 percent lower than the industry average.*

Image credit: ASICS

At Sustainable Brands®’ recent Brand-Led Culture Change event, Alice Mitchell — ASICS’ General Manager of Global Category Marketing — explained the ethos at the core of the brand.

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“At ASICS, we've long understood that our purpose of uplifting the minds of people through movement is inseparable from the need to ensure that we do so sustainably,” Mitchell said. “ASICS was founded to lift the spirits of the world through sport. It is why we are called ASICS — which is a Latin phrase, ‘Anima Sana in Corpore Sano,’ meaning ‘a sound mind in a sound body.’ But in order to achieve a sound mind in a sound body, we need a sound earth to run on.”

Mitchell also mentioned ASICS’ forthcoming commitment to product carbon-footprint labeling.

“From this year onwards, consumers will benefit from ASICS labeling product with the total amount of CO2e emissions emitted across its lifecycle — allowing wearers to make decisions that not only benefit mind and body, but also the planet,” she said. “We are dedicated to measuring and reducing our product carbon footprint, alongside all ASICS operations, to continue bringing the benefits of movement to the world we love to run in.”

This milestone follows ASICS’ 2022 launch of the GEL-LYTE™ III CM 1.95 sneaker, which emits just 1.95kg CO2e across its lifecycle — significantly lighter than the lowest CO2e sneakers available on the market at that point. It represented a significant leap forward by ASICS in its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

To learn more about ASICS' commitment to sustainability, visit https://asics.com/mk/sustainability.

*Assessed using consistent methodology across ASICS’ carbon footprint methodology and the most comprehensive reporting available for industry average running shoes, conducted by MIT). Learn more about ASICS’ calculation methodology here.

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