The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
Adidas advertised a 'recycled running shoes' range — no such range existed
Adidas' Google ad told UK shoppers to check out its recycled running shoe range. The ASA banned it: the range didn't exist and no shoe was fully recycled.
Adidas · 2026-06
What happened
On 18 December 2025 Adidas ran a paid Google search ad in the UK: 'adidas Recycled Running Shoes […] Check Out Our Recycled Shoe Range Today.' The ASA's Active Ad Monitoring system, which surveys environmental claims in the retail fashion sector, picked it up and challenged whether 'Recycled Running Shoes' was misleading and could be substantiated.
Adidas did not have a specific recycled running shoe range, and offered no evidence that any of its running shoes containing recycled material were made entirely from recycled material. The ASA concluded that 'Recycled Running Shoes,' especially with the reference to a 'Range,' would be read by consumers as meaning every shoe in the range was made from 100% recycled materials.
On 24 June 2026 the ASA upheld the complaint. The ad breached CAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.3 on misleading advertising, 3.7 on substantiation, and 11.1 and 11.3 on environmental claims, and must not appear again in the investigated form.
Why it happened
- The ad promised a specific thing — a 'Recycled Shoe Range' — that did not exist in Adidas' catalogue, so the claim was false on its face.
- 'Recycled' combined with 'Range' reads as '100% recycled,' an absolute claim requiring a high level of substantiation that Adidas did not hold.
- Adidas had shoes containing some recycled material but advertised them as a recycled range, blurring the line between 'contains recycled content' and 'made from recycled material.'
The lesson
Advertise what exists: Adidas told shoppers to buy from a recycled running shoe range that wasn't one. The ASA banned the ad for implying shoes were fully recycled when none were.
Aftermath
The ASA ruled the ad must not appear again in the form investigated and told Adidas to make the basis of environmental claims clear, avoid suggesting products were entirely recycled when they were not, and hold high-level substantiation for absolute claims. The ruling was published alongside same-day bans of Uniqlo and Calvin Klein for the same 'recycled' claims, and follows Adidas' earlier run-ins with the ASA over green claims.
Sources
- ASA Ruling on Adidas UK Ltd t/a adidas (A26-1327728)
- The Guardian: Adidas, Uniqlo and Calvin Klein ads in UK banned over 'recycled' clothing claims
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