LI NING creates a special event for Earth Day to showcase the achievements of its full-chain promotion of environmentally friendly products

According to Zhitong Finance APP, on April 20, 2025, coinciding with Earth Day, the Chinese sports brand LI NING (02331) launched the LI NING Nature pop-up space at Yinshi Plaza, Chunxi Road, Chengdu, officially kicking off LI NING's Earth Day special event themed "Every Step Forward, Making the World Better." This event aims to comprehensively showcase LI NING's practical achievements in promoting environmentally friendly technology in sports shoes and apparel, constructing a "full chain" of eco-friendly products through immersive environmental science popularization, a retrospective of eco-friendly product exploration, and online and offline interactive activities, calling on the public to pay attention to and practice a green lifestyle.

For many years, LI NING has been committed to building a "full chain" of eco-friendly products from four aspects: raw materials, processes, recycling, and ecological circulation. Relying on technological innovation, it has gradually realized the implementation and deepening of environmental concepts in these four aspects, promoting a green lifestyle into consumers' sports lives, adhering to the philosophy of "Every Step Forward," and supporting the sustainable development of the industry.

Caption: LI NING Nature

Starting from raw materials, processes, recycling, and circulation, LI NING is committed to building a full chain of eco-friendly products

The LI NING Nature space visualizes the "full chain" of eco-friendly products, creating four main scenes and sections: "Originating from Nature," "Naturally Dyed," "Natural Rebirth," and "Returning to Nature."

"Originating from Nature" focuses on the raw material level, showcasing LI NING's achievements in using and promoting bio-based materials over the years. The core of bio-based materials comes from annually renewable plant-based raw materials, which possess a unique combination of excellent properties. For example, the LI NING Banshi shoe upper and extreme Banshi shoe upper technology are derived from castor oil, upgrading functionality while being closer to nature. Currently, LI NING's running shoe products using bio-based materials have exceeded 10 million pairs.

"Naturally Dyed" section demonstrates LI NING's water-saving actions in the product dyeing process. Waterless dyeing technology can reduce the water consumption of a single product by about 40 liters, equivalent to the drinking water needs of an adult for 20 days. The plant dyeing process inherits traditional Chinese craftsmanship, extracting natural colors from plants such as pomegranate peels, mulberry leaves, and madder, significantly reducing energy and water consumption, thereby alleviating environmental pressure. For example, in terms of blue color, using plant dyeing technology can reduce electricity consumption by 42.2% and water consumption by 53.4% compared to traditional synthetic dyes.

Caption: LI NING Nature Natural Space "Originating from Nature", "Dyed Naturally"

"Natural Rebirth" scene intuitively presents LI NING's green action on resource reuse. By using environmentally friendly yarn made from recycled plastic bottles, LI NING has promoted the reuse of over 190 million recycled plastic bottles. As a professional sports brand, LI NING also applies eco-friendly yarn to professional competition uniforms for basketball, badminton, and table tennis, with each set of professional competition uniforms representing the recycling "rebirth" of at least 10 plastic bottles.

Caption: LI NING Nature Natural Space "Natural Rebirth", "Returning to Nature"

In the "Returning to Nature" exhibition area, LI NING showcases the changes of a fully biodegradable sports shoe in soil over 180 days by setting up a "simulated ecological cycle process," vividly reflecting the groundbreaking latest fully biodegradable technology. As the first Chinese sports brand to have fully biodegradable professional sports shoes, LI NING will continue to explore fully biodegradable technology.

LI NING Nature Natural Space also features Earth Day themed installations and workshop interactive experience areas, attracting many consumers to pay attention, check in, and actively participate in interactive activities such as "Biobased Shoelace DIY" and "Plant Dye Spray DIY," practicing the sustainable concept of "Every step, moving forward" through small actions together.

Caption: Workshop Interactive Experience

Under the special activities for Earth Day, starting from April 20, LI NING will successively launch eco-friendly display areas in 12 stores nationwide, and will initiate a "Old Items Recycling, Natural Rebirth" shoe and clothing recycling campaign online and offline starting from April 25. This campaign relies on the extensive resources of terminal touchpoints to engage the public in understanding environmental technology and products, promoting the popularization and implementation of sustainable lifestyles.

Caption: LI NING Store Eco-Friendly Display Area

From Point Breakthrough to Systematic Stage, LI NING Leads the Path of Environmental Protection with Technological Innovation

For a long time, LI NING has maintained a focus on and promotion of environmental protection technology. As early as 2011, LI NING took the lead in launching the "MIX Concept Shoe," achieving the integration of the shoe upper and sole through a glue-free bonding process, winning the China Red Star Award Supreme Gold Award and the German iF Design Award Launched in 2013, the "GREEN IN BLACK tire shoes" recycle and reuse waste tire materials, winning the German iF Design Award and being shortlisted for the final list of the American Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).

Caption: Li Ning's Environmental Protection Journey

In recent years, Li Ning has achieved a series of breakthroughs in environmentally friendly products by relying on innovative materials and technologies such as bio-based, plant dyeing, waterless dyeing, recycled eco-friendly yarns, and fully biodegradable materials. The environmentally friendly product "Full Link" showcased in Li Ning's Nature Space covers all aspects from raw materials, processes, recycling, and ecological circulation, marking that Li Ning's exploration of eco-friendly products and technologies has transitioned from point breakthroughs to a systematic stage.

The active promotion of innovation in environmental protection technology is the solid foundation for Li Ning to build a systematic full-link ecology. Among them, fully biodegradable technology, as the latest technological breakthrough, is both cutting-edge and representative.

Caption: Li Ning's Eco-Friendly Product "Full Link"

A pair of sports shoes consists of more than 30 "components." Due to the complexity of structure and functional requirements, the application of fully biodegradable technology in sports shoes has always been a challenge in the industry. Since 2020, Li Ning has initiated efforts to develop fully biodegradable shoes, continuously promoting innovative research and development in collaboration with industry partners and academic resources. For a long time, due to the lack of biodegradable rubber materials, the development of biodegradable rubber outsoles has been unable to break through, and fully biodegradable shoes have remained a concept. Academician Zhang Liqun and Professor Wang Chao's team first proposed the concept of bio-based biodegradable rubber internationally and overcame industrial challenges such as molecular design, efficient catalysis, and high molecular weight polymerization through nearly twenty years of research and development. Li Ning has deeply integrated with the academician team to jointly develop and further solve the technical challenges of biodegradable outsoles and midsoles, making Li Ning the first Chinese sports brand to achieve fully biodegradable professional sports shoes.

Implementing the concept of sustainable development, Li Ning drives the green development of the industry

In addition to creating a full link for eco-friendly products, Li Ning's green development full link is also reflected in various aspects such as office, production, logistics, and sales, striving to connect every link from product planning to stores and even waste disposal to comprehensively reduce environmental impact.

In recent years, Li Ning has not only continuously provided diverse eco-friendly products but has also strengthened its green operations. By leveraging intelligent and digital technologies, it orderly promotes the use of clean energy and efficient energy management, implementing the concept of green operations. At the same time, Li Ning continuously optimizes its supplier management system, establishes an incentive mechanism for suppliers' environmental protection behaviors, and actively encourages industry ecological partners to implement sustainable development actions together, promoting the green development of the sporting goods industry In the future, LI NING will rely on the "full-link" system of environmentally friendly products, focusing on four aspects: raw materials, processes, recycling and reuse, and ecological circulation. It will continue to increase the research, promotion, and application of environmentally friendly materials and technologies, providing a richer selection of green products while ensuring product functionality.

LI NING will also integrate the concept of sustainable development into its business operations, continuously calling on and connecting with consumers, deeply engaging industry partners, and jointly practicing the philosophy of "every step moves forward." It will strive to surpass itself to achieve sustainability in products and operations, allowing employees, enterprises, society, and nature to develop harmoniously together, building a healthier and better world