OESH® Shoes to Produce 100% Recyclable Soles

"Designed for Health" is the motto behind OESH® Shoes (OESH), a US footwear brand producing women's shoes. The company is evaluating how Huntsman's thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) materials can be used via 3D printing to create 100% recyclable shoe soles, and the results are positive. Founded by Casey Kerrigan, a Harvard Medical School graduate, OESH Shoes has been providing innovative and healthy footwear to women since 2011. Kerrigan is an internationally recognized researcher who studies the effects of shoes on health. He discovered that many common shoe features can negatively affect posture and joints. Kerrigan subsequently created OESH Shoes to transform his research findings into healthy shoe design. When OESH contacted Huntsman seeking advice on the ideal material for 3D-printed soles, Huntsman's footwear team recommended TPU materials with the specific comfort and performance properties OESH required. Kerrigan and Huntsman, wanting to offer environmentally conscious customers a fully recyclable shoe, worked together to evaluate the material and determine whether the shoe would break down at the end of its service life and could be recycled for reuse.

OESH tested Huntsman's TPU using its unique 3D printing technique, which creates parts directly from pellets, producing a series of soles. The soles were then recycled into pellets and fed back into the 3D manufacturing process.

The next step was to test the new recycled sole against soles made from virgin material. The results showed that the recycled sole maintained the same functionality as the original, with no reduction in performance properties. Casey Kerrigan stated: "As OESH Shoes, we are committed to producing not only the healthiest shoes for the planet, but also the healthiest shoes for the planet itself. We continuously innovate and develop new technologies and manufacturing processes that minimize carbon emissions, toxins, and waste. We are excited about this latest discovery—that OESH's custom soles using Huntsman's TPU elastomers are now not only 100% healthy, but also 100% recyclable." Jason Smith, Global Innovation Project Manager at Huntsman, also commented: "As a business, we are committed to helping our customers meet their sustainability goals, whether by supplying products that require less energy to process or by providing materials that can be recycled into new products at the end of their service life. We are pleased to work alongside the OESH Shoes team—enabling them to create a fully recyclable shoe that can have a positive impact on both the environment and the health of the user."