Every year in France, 14 million tennis balls end up in the trash. While they are essential on the court, they are a real disaster for the planet: their lifespan is ridiculously short (barely 30 to 60 minutes of play for professionals!) because they quickly lose their bounce. As a result, 97% of them are immediately incinerated or buried in landfill, where they will take nearly 400 years to decompose, releasing microplastics and methane.
Faced with this ecological nonsense, the brand Zèta decided to transform this short-lived waste into a durable product. In collaboration with several tennis clubs in the Vizela region of Portugal, located just a few kilometers from the sneaker manufacturing workshops, Zèta has set up a short supply chain for collection.
The collected used balls are carefully ground into very fine particles. This new powder is then fused with recycled synthetic rubber, then dyed and injected directly into the mold to form the thick sole and the logo of the ACE’98 vegan sneaker.
Giving a desirable second life to an object destined for destruction is the very essence of the ACE'98.
