Nike Flyleather

An engineered leather material that looks, feels and smells like natural leather, made by binding at least 50% recycled leather fibres together with synthetic fibres using an innovative water-powered process that has a lower impact on climate change compared to traditional full-grain leather.

Nike Flyleather uses recycled leather fibres otherwise discarded in the leather manufacturing process to create a material that's more abrasion resistant than full-grain leather and is 40% more lightweight than full-grain leather.

In traditional leather shoe manufacturing, some leather palette falls to tannery floors, eventually going to landfills. We recycle these leather fibres to create a material that diverts waste from landfills.

The initial inspiration for Nike Flyleather was born out of a challenge to develop leather into a modern performance material—like engineered mesh and Flyknit. The key was to do so while still preserving the things people love about leather, like the look, feel and even the smell.

Another crucial factor lay in the desire to reduce the carbon footprint associated with leather, which not only uses a lot of energy and chemicals, but also results in a great deal of leftover scrap material. The mission became not only to invent a modern engineered leather, but also to reinvent the material production process to reduce waste and lower carbon impact.

Bhupesh Dua, Director, Materials Technology at Nike