The best thing since spliced leather

Oakdene Hollins' work is a sporting triumph.

NIKE's new product, Flyleather, is an "engineered leather material that looks, feels and smells like natural leather". It is made by binding reclaimed leather fibre together in an innovative, environmentally sustainable, water-powered process. The process reclaims leather that would otherwise become waste from manufacturing. By using a waste material, Flyleather can be said to reduce water use by 90% and has an 80% smaller carbon footprint compared to traditional leather.

The idea behind the process was to create a performance material to challenge synthetic performance materials while preserving the look, feel and smell of real leather. And NIKE wanted to reduce the environmental footprint of the leather manufacturing process, which uses a lot of energy and chemicals and produces a large amount of scrap.

We love this product, the innovative business behind it and its ability to create value from waste. So who was it behind the project to assess the environmental footprint of the material? None other than Oakdene Hollins.