Here's What Allbirds' M0.0NSHOT Net Zero Carbon Shoes Look Like

Back in March, we covered the announcement of Allbrid's M0.0NSHOT, which the shoemaker is billing as the world’s first net zero carbon shoe. Certainly, there are other net zero carbon shoes out there in the world—shoes made by people using traditional, natural materials come to mind—but in terms of the commercial shoe industry, we're good with the claim.

The initiative is notable for a few things. Not only is the production of M0.0NSHOT—with its carbon footprint of net 0.0 kg CO2e—the most sustainable we have seen to date for a mass-produced shoe, but the company is also very publically asking other manufacturers to copy it by giving away their secrets. They have open-sourced the M0.0NSHOT methodology with their "Recipe B0.0K," a toolkit detailing each step of the M0.0NSHOT’s process, including materials, manufacturing, transportation, end-of-life, and carbon footprint calculation. (You can see how the company accounts for their net zero calculations here.)

While the shoe was announced in March, we had no idea what it would look like. Until now. Allbirds’s co-founder Tim Brown unveiled the wool high-top at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen on June 27.

“This is one small step for Allbirds—but it could be one giant leap for the footwear industry, if others join us. Unlike the space ‘race,’ this is a relay—we’re all on the same side,” said Brown. “M0.0NSHOT is Allbirds’s greatest achievement, but it’s meaningless without others taking action: which is why we felt compelled to open-source our learnings, so others can pick up the baton and take us forward.”

Now that we've seen the shoe, well, it's nothing like we imagined. As the photos illustrate, it is a high-top design in a form-fitting sock-boot style. It is a comfy bootie-sneaker that is pretty mod, yet not too far of a departure from the company's signature style to alienate Allbirds' significant fan base.

And while sock boots have been popular for a while, it's evident that the design has also been informed by its production. As explained by Allbirds, the components include:

• An upper made with carbon-negative regenerative wool sourced from Lake Hawea Station. The minimalist design approach heroes this super natural material, a full-circle moment for the company founded with a wool shoe.
• A midsole featuring a specially crafted version of Allbirds’s SuperLight Foam, a carbon-negative bio-based midsole foam made with sugarcane and formed via supercritical foaming. 
• Molded components including a logo made with methane-capture bioplastic via a partnership with Mango Materials. 
• Sugarcane-based polyethylene packaging—a carbon-negative material—reducing the weight and space required for transportation.

“We didn’t just make the world’s first net zero carbon shoe. We also made the second, third, fourth net zero carbon shoe, and so on, as we explored different prototypes to create an appropriate visual identity for this milestone,” said Jamie McLellan, design lead on the project. “As we thought about this ‘shoe of the future,' we were clear that M0.0NSHOT couldn’t look like something from the past. We’ve not just reimagined the science of a sustainable shoe, we’ve reimagined the design, too.”

To get news and dates about the upcoming release of the shoe, sign up for updates at Allbirds.