Athletic footwear brand ASICS has launched a new performance running shoe, the Nimbus Mirai, that the company has said is one of the most advanced shoes it has ever made. By Footwearbiz.

Mirai is the Japanese word for ‘future’. ASICS said it had chosen the name because its aim is “to make a positive impact on future generations of runners”.

It has encouraged runners in the US, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to buy the shoes, use them extensively and then return them to the company at end of life so that the shoes can be made into new products.

Its construction is with uniform polyester material and the entire upper has no overlays. It has used a special type of adhesive, created in house, to provide durable bonds while the shoe is in use, but also to make the upper easily detachable from the sole during recycling processes.

The entirety of the upper will go through recycling, ASICS has confirmed, and be retrieved as a new polyester material, “ready to be remade to run again”.