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Today, trainers. Tomorrow, track.
Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe programme takes old athletic shoes and turns them into Nike Grind, a high-quality sports surface used in courts, turf fields and tracks.
It’s all part of their vision to make ‘closed-loop’ products – things that use the fewest materials possible and can be taken apart and recycled into something new.
Since 1990, Reuse-A-Shoe has transformed 28 million pairs of shoes and 36,000 tons of scrap material into Nike Grind, which is used in 450,000 locations around the world. Time to dig your old trainers out from under the bed and give them a new lease of life.
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Dip into Little Women. Borrow the Little Prince. Follow Gulliver through Lilliput. All from the teeny weeniest library you’ve ever seen. (Good spot, Lyndal.)
Designed by Stereotank, the ‘Little Free Library’ is a project by The Architectural League of New York and Pen World Voices Festival. There are ten of the yellow pods in New York, each stocked with tomes donated by the local community.
The libraries are made from upside down plastic tanks and wooden frames, creating ‘inhabitable’ spaces where people can immerse themselves and take time to browse, borrow and exchange. When you take a book, you’re also encouraged to leave one behind, meaning the selection will be different every time you pop your head in.
Best of all – there’s not a strict librarian in sight.
Via. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2013/05/worlds-tiniest-library-pops-new-york-city/5742/
CivicCommunityLibraryNew YorkPublic services
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What will your dog do for food? Roll over? Shake hands? Bark a tune?
To show the lengths dogs will go to for a bite to eat, pet care brand Bakers set up the world’s first vending machine for dogs in a London park. (What a good boy, Jamie C!)
After tugging on a toy bone, the machine launched a tennis ball from its roof. When dogs returned the ball, the machine dispensed a free pack of dog food into a doggy bowl.
Now someone just has to teach them how to open it…
Via. http://designtaxi.com/news/357193/World-s-First-Vending-Machine-For-Dogs/
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What comes to mind when you think of Absolut? Dark bars? House parties? Ads with clever wordplay? Chances are, the brand’s Swedish heritage isn’t top of the list.
But to get back to its artistically-inclined, sustainably-minded roots, Absolut has introduced a new premier vodka made with traditional Swedish techniques: Absolut Elyx.
Painstakingly handcrafted in tiny volumes, the concoction is distilled in a vintage rectification still, with copper columns, pumps and hand-forged pipes, and extra copper packets for even further purification. It’s made from only the finest Råbelöf-sourced wheat and blended with water from Absolut’s own natural underground springs.
The result? According to Absolut, all this hard work and meticulous attention to detail leads to an ‘outstanding vodka’ with ‘silky textures’ and a ‘clean, slightly fruity taste’. Perhaps best not to mix it with Coke.
ArtisanFood & drinkSpiritsSweden
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No more scrambling to switch off your phone before meetings. No more interrupted meals. And no more panicking about the Marimba blasting out during your child’s school play.
Blokket is a slim pouch made of a silver and nylon material that blocks cellular signals while your phone is inside. Designed to help people – literally – switch off from technology, it also protects against identity theft, as chipped ID cards and passports inside the pouch can’t be accessed by unauthorised RFID readers.
Blokket comes with either a pink or yellow band, and the choice of two little messages: ‘My phone is off for you’ or ‘Goodbye phone, hello world!’ Get yours from the MoMa Store for $38 and prepare for a bleep, ring and vibration-free day.
Via. http://www.psfk.com/2013/05/case-blocks-phone-signal.html
