Cooper Standard announced its partnership with NIKE Inc., including a new expansion of its technology licensing agreement. Based on the initial long-term agreement reached in 2021 to license Cooper Standard's Fortrex? material platform for footwear applications, the new agreement provides NIKE with limited exclusivity to use the Fortrex material for footwear and allows them to develop new applications for use in additional product lines.

The Fortrex material platform is Cooper Standard's proprietary elastomeric material that can be used in a wide range of applications including automotive sealing systems, shoe midsoles, and potentially many others. The award-winning material offers high elasticity and enables improvements in quality, durability, weight savings, aesthetics and performance over competitive solutions. In addition to superior product performance, Cooper Standard's Fortrex material can greatly improve product sustainability.

The material offers a dramatic reduction in product lifecycle carbon footprint versus traditional materials such as EPDM (53% reduction), TPV (22% reduction) and comparable shoe midsole foams (43% reduction) through the use of more environmentally friendly feedstock and manufacturing processes. For NIKE, the Fortrex material enables an outstanding balance of performance and sustainability.