Puma aims to cut paw print by reinventing shoebox

Using the new packaging to highlight his company’s new commitments on sustainability, Puma chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz said the company as a whole would cut its carbon, waste and water use by 25% by 2015 and ensure that 50% of its products met the strictest sustainability standards by that date.

The company tasked Yves Behar, the designer behind the One Laptop Per Child campaign to make computers more accessible in developing countries, to come up with a more sustainable solution to the shoebox.

The result was what Puma calls Clever Little Bag which is, in truth, more a box-bag hybrid than a simple bag.

In short, the box uses a single sheet of cardboard folded up at the edges and that is inserted into a bag.

This gives it a similar structure to a standard shoebox, meaning it can be stacked, shipped and stored without any radical logistical changes.

The bag part can also be used to replace the disposable plastic bag that would otherwise be handed out with the shoes at the point of sale, reducing waste again.

Other resource-saving innovations at the company include folding T-shirts one more time before packing them – cutting the plastic wrapping required by half – and reducing the number and size of tags on goods, reducing paper required to make them by 45%.

Related video:

Yves Behar outlines the thinking behind the Clever Little Bag

Jochen Zeitz talks about Puma’s history of commitment to sustainability and announces new plans

Sam Bond