Engineering technology, captivating design, and environmental respect condensed into a single sneaker. Science fiction? No, it’s a project that is already a reality thanks to Finproject and XL EXTRALIGHT®, an ingredient brand of the Marche-based group. In the company’s laboratories in Morrovalle, XIRCULAR, a concept sneaker was created and presented in advance during the just-concluded edition of Lineapelle, the most important international fair dedicated to leather goods accessories. An experimental project that represents a great step forward in a perspective of circular economy, where the increasingly felt need to obtain sustainable products combines with the need to offer a cool and trendy aesthetic, extending the life cycle of proposals exponentially. Finproject, a leader in the production of special materials for high-tech applications, has long been known for the patent of XL EXTRALIGHT®, an avant-garde material in terms of lightweight performance, comfort, flexibility, and shock absorption, perfect for constructing soles with athletic performance. The latest step was to add a green soul to it, with XL EXTRALIGHT® Sustainable+. Its composition derives, in fact, from the mixing of internal production waste from the plants, allowing not only active recovery of processing by-products but also concrete energy savings and the reduction of industrial production residues. Also at the cutting edge is the hi-tech component at the design level, as the construction of the models is the result of an organic approach in the design of volumes, with the combined use of both 3D parametric design and 3D printing. The R&D team is able to modulate every step in real-time, managing to make structural changes in multiple parts and even elaborate on very complex geometries depending on the final needs. The Xircular represents an ideal sneaker concept, capable of giving life to a real virtuous circle that sees the Finproject Group increasingly engaged on the front lines to make a concrete contribution to environmental protection. “XIRCULAR best summarizes our mission, that is, to push to the extreme the possibilities that technology and creativity offer us to innovate our sector by looking to the future and respecting the environment,” proudly declares Nicola Vecchiola, Divisional Director Moulding and Deputy Director, “for its development, we have experimented with an unprecedented technological approach in our world and demonstrated that unique design objects can be produced even through waste materials.”
