Nike GM, Laurie Vogel said of the initiative,

"Nike has made huge strides in designing more sustainable products but we know we can't continue to tap into the earth's declining resources to make new and more innovative products. We have to unlock the power of collective innovation to create a future where you can literally turn an old shoe into a new shoe or an old shirt into a new shirt. That currently isn't possible because we don't have access to the ideal sustainable and recyclable materials to make these products in the first place."

All ideas generated and answers created during the Labs will be made public thanks to a Creative Commons license. Some of the other questions asked during the labs include:

• Is a closed loop material ecosystem just a useful metaphor or a real possibility?

• What performance criteria would new materials have to meet in order to be useful?

• What type of sources (biological, agricultural, or synthetic) should be used to generate these future materials? How do we evaluate the lifecycle impacts (water, carbon, embedded energy, toxicity, and waste) of proposed materials?

• How might a market for such a material operate at scale? How could policy be used to promote its use?

Nike itself is a global company and, similar to the WalMart effect, the choices they make influence supply chains and consumers around the world. They have already used organic cotton in their clothing for years and last year even dabbled in shoes made from manufacturing waste.

Having a major corporation state that they are selling deep green products does much to not just put the meme out there, but also to foster more interest in the idea from other companies. It also supports those new industries that are providing the supplies and resources needed to go closed loop. After this Lab, Pop!Tech plans on working with other companies and taking on additional green design challenges.