Bonnie Tsui spotlights the footwear industry’s embrace of knitting:
[K]nit technology just might transform the entire traditional shoemaking process. Athletic shoes make up 30 percent of all footwear sales, and Nike and Adidas dominate, with$14.5 billion and $9.5 billion in sales, respectively, in 2013. Widespread use of the knitting technique could boost the industry’s efficiency—cutting down on materials, labor, shipping, and time, as the products can be made start-to-finish in one place. In its latest sustainability report, Nike states that a Flyknit running shoe is made with 80 percent less waste than a typical Nike design. Consider that Americans buy an average of seven pairs of shoes a year—that’s more than two billion new pairs annually—and you begin to see the difference that a change in manufacturing could make. …
With knitting, you start with a single thread, and you only use as much yarn as you need. “Picture a flat pattern in a butterfly shape,” says [James] Carnes [the global creative director of sport performance for Adidas]. “With the knitting process, you only make that. That’s the breakthrough. You can build into the single knitted layer all the functionality you need, by adjusting the density of the knit in different areas”—a tighter weave to give the foot more arch support, say, or a thinner, breathable weave to create more airflow.
The Dish 