What do Nike and Burger King's circular experiments tell us?

6 May 2022

April and May brought news of two major brands launching new experiments in the circular economy.

Nike unveiled the ISPA link trainers, decomposable into multiple parts to showcase a new wave of experimental shoe design. The aim: reduce new purchases by allowing replaceable, glue-less parts. (https://www.dezeen.com/2022/04/29/nike-ispa-link-disassembly/ )

Nike previously made progress with their dedicated circular design guide.

Burger King likewise made moves in their Terracycle loop partnership with a deposit scheme for reusable, durable packaging.

But each of these schemes, while great on their own terms, represents a micro-experimental shift towards circular solutions. The hope is these experiments are hedges by these firms against broader shifts, allowing them to explore and understand how consumers understand these shifts in order to improve how they scale.

But the speed of experiment to scale remains a major question - and even more, who else should these major firms be helping to move into the circular economy.

We do need more than experiments, though these experiments are fantastic progress. But we need these experiments to be an avenue for larger partnership models, where major firms invest in and develop local ecosystems of partners to assist their experimentation and transition.

The biggest firms in the world do have a responsibility - but a circular economy is only as robust as the quality of local actors who facilitate repair, refurbishment, reverse logistics, collection, cleaning, design, development, and the whole universe of necessary circular services.

We need these firms to engage in clearer, local partnerships to support a new generation of local partners. But on the other side, we do need a broader, bolder wave of experiments to bring excitement and interest to precisely where circular economy and our existing luxuries really fit. A circular world can be more engaging and exciting than many of our existing product lines, where we focus on throwaway disposable goods.

We look forward to seeing more of how the world begins to imagine what circular products look like, and what kind of economy is needed to support and enable them!