It may be hard for many people to imagine that sport, the most beautiful pastime in the world, is causing such damage to our planet. Yet there are already ways and means of doing things differently.

Runner's World magazine once recorded the carbon footprint of a statistically average running enthusiast per year: 3 pairs of running socks (40 kg CO2), 3 pairs of running shoes (215 kg CO2), 2 pairs of running shorts (50 kg CO2), 1 pair of tights (35 kg CO2), 1 running shirt (25 kg CO2), 1 load of laundry per week (120 kg CO2). The result is around 485 kg of CO2 that runners cause.

Sports brands, as the actual producers of these emissions, also do little to minimize their ecological footprint. On the contrary. Running and fitness equipment in particular is booming. The big brands are breaking sales record after sales record. 20 billion sports shoes are expected to be sold every year. At most 3 to 4 % of these, mostly sneakers, can claim to follow a sustainable concept. The actual portfolio is still based on conventional products.

Only very few companies want to clean up after themselves. After all, a systematic switch to more plant-based or recycled materials or the installation of genuine circular processes would cost millions, if not billions, in profits. In general, most sports brands like to make things easy for themselves. Because recycled materials are more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, but more expensive, just over 10% of all plastics in the textile industry are made from recycled materials. Most plastic products, such as shoes or functional shirts, are either incinerated or end up in landfill sites, preferably in the world's poorest countries.

However, the pollution of soil and water is not only caused by common waste products. Plastic textiles in particular, which are washed regularly, release tiny microplastic particles with every wash. These cannot be caught by conventional filters and end up in rivers, lakes and oceans. It is estimated that 500,000 tons of these plastic particles are already floating around in the oceans - unwanted fish food that later ends up in our digestive tract. An adult human eats one credit card worth of plastic per week.

It would therefore be high time to tackle this problem and change the way running shoes or sports shirts are manufactured, for example. Instead, the creativity of most marketing departments is taking greenwashing to a whole new level. The most popular tricks used by established brands are individual "green" products or collections that are widely advertised but deliberately only play a symbolic role in the company's actual sales.

Others promise to be climate-neutral in twenty years (which no one can refute today), misleadingly describe their products as "sustainable" or "recycled", or talk about comprehensive campaigns to protect rainforests or Southern Californian anteaters, which are merely intended to distract attention from the way of working that has remained unchanged for decades.

In fact, the sports and running industry has long been dependent on synthetic materials and even today they are still not completely replaceable everywhere. However, the possibilities are now much more extensive, but are still not used for the sake of profit. And that is precisely what WINQS is changing.

We know from experience that athletes are not prepared to compromise. Sustainability alone is therefore rarely the reason to buy a running shoe or a sports shirt. But what if the functions of the product, such as durability, skin compatibility or all-purpose suitability, are closely interwoven with the ecological claim of the brand?

This is precisely why we develop running shoes such as the Everfly™, which not only require 80% less new petroleum-based plastics, but also provide optimum cushioning for up to four times longer than conventional models. We produce running textiles from eucalyptus or sugar cane, which are renewable without any loss of quality thanks to molecular recycling, but are also much gentler on the skin and more comfortable to wear than polyester or nylon plastic.

We also have our own partners who take on the dismantling and recycling of our running shoes or textiles, for example. And we offer radical transparency in our supply chain via individual QR codes, also to ensure fair working conditions.

Admittedly, neither athletes nor specialist retailers had any real alternatives to the established traditional brands until now. But those days are now over.