ACBC is an award-winning Italian consultancy for responsible fashion and product design founded in 2017 by Edoardo Iannuzzi and Gio Giacobbe. Today ACBC serves over 100+ global luxury, performance, and lifestyle brands, guiding them towards their sustainability goals and helping transform one of the most polluting industries. They’ve reduced the carbon impact of over a million products thanks to their input on responsible design and materials.
They’ve made capsule collections and special eco-designed projects, and have had particular impact on footwear thanks to Edoardo’s background in that sector. Behind the scenes are a team of 40+ experts with an average of 15+ years in the industry, from product transformation and data science to supply chain and change management.
One major way that ACBC helps fashion companies improve their sustainability performance is through more responsible materials. In fact, Co-founder Iannuzzi first discovered Algenesis when he was searching for “materials that could completely biodegrade,” he explained.
At this point Soleic had also already created their own fully biodegradable BLUEVIEW shoe brand, a proof of concept for their Soleic Foam technology applied to ready to wear consumer footwear.
From their offices in Milan and San Diego, both teams were excited about the huge potential in this collaboration: urethane technology that would hold up to the rigorous standards of luxury fashion design, but would no longer end up in landfills once discarded.
“There is a unique synergy between ACBC and Algenesis, as urethane technology is widely used in footwear and apparel applications. This creates the opportunity to work collaboratively with the brands, so that new products can be designed for maximum sustainability, manufactured in the most sustainable way possible, plus certified appropriately without compromising style and performance,” says Nick Sandland, Soleic’s Chief Business Officer.
The partnership also made intuitive sense from the perspective of shared values, and dedication to tangible change for the planet: ACBC’s mantra of ‘Anything Can Be Changed’ fits beautifully into Soleic’s commitment to creating a future without microplastics. “Collaboration with Soleic is excellent thanks to the fact that we are like-minded and share both a vision and ambitious targets,” explains Iannuzzi.
In the summer of 2024, Algenesis and ACBC will unveil the world's first line of fully biodegradable footwear insoles.
Harnessing the power of Algenesis' patented Soleic technology, these insoles are fully biodegradable in home composting conditions, without the release of harmful microplastics. Covered with 100% GRS (Global Recycled Standard) recycled textile-to-textile cotton, from top to bottom they're a testament to sustainable sourcing and circular design.
“We see enormous opportunity for Algenesis to disrupt the fashion materials market and offer more sustainable solutions for those that need high-performance materials delivered rapidly,” says Iannuzzi. Sandland is equally enthusiastic about the future impact of this partnership, after just getting back from visits in May 2024 with Iannuzzi to ACBC offices and factory partners in Italy to see first-hand how the technology will be implemented. Speaking about the many benefits of the collaboration, he told us that “it allows the brands to achieve their objectives, the consumer to get the products they are looking for, and the industry overall to reduce its negative environmental impact.”
The fully biodegradable insole will be made in Italy and delivered to luxury footwear brand partners by the end of 2024 – so keep your eyes out for the ‘ACBC x SOLEIC’ logo the next time you look inside your new pair of shoes!
