amsterdam launches gumshoe, the world's first sneaker made from recycled chewing gum

the amsterdam metropolitan area introduces gumshoe, a sneaker with soles made from chewing gum taken from the city’s streets. designed in collaboration with publicis one, explicit wear and gum-tec®, the sneaker is meant to raise awareness of amsterdam’s gum litter problem in a creative and positive way.

publicis one and gum-tec® developed a new type of rubber made of chewing gum, which local shoe brand explicit wear used in the design for the sneaker, finished with the map of amsterdam on its sole.  ‘adding extra rules and restrictions to reduce the chewing gum problem would be at odds with our mission,’ explains mustafa tanriverdi of amsterdam metropolitan area, ‘with these sneakers we make people part of the problem, or rather of the solution; in this way we have much more impact.’ 

the streets of the netherlands accumulate about 1.5 million kilos of chewing gum annually, costing the dutch municipalities millions of euros to clean. with gumshoe, the amsterdam metropolitan area aims to stimulate its citizens with a surprising innovation.