PUMA recently introduced cutting-edge sustainable packaging that will reduce the paper used for shoeboxes by 65% and carbon emissions by 10,000 tons per year. PUMA partnered with designer Yves Béhar, of San Francisco based fuseproject, to rethink the way the millions of pairs of shoes that it sells each year are packaged — less packaging means fewer raw materials, less use of water and energy to produce, and less weight to ship and to be disposed of.
Béhar designed a “Clever Little Bag” to replace the cardboard shoebox with a re-usable shoe bag, that protects each pair of shoes from damage from the point it leaves the factory until the consumer takes it home — thus generating savings on the production side due to less material used, reducing weight during transport and eliminating the need for extra plastic carrier bags. As a result of the 65% paper reduction through the “Clever Little Bag” concept PUMA will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level by more than 60% per year.
By switching out current plastic and paper shopping bags in PUMA stores and replacing them with sustainable biodegradable bags the sportlifestyle company is looking to save another 192 tons of plastic and 293 tons of paper annually.
The retail launch of the new packaging and distribution system is planned for the second half of 2011.