They used to catch fish, now they catch balls
SV Werder Bremen and BRACENET use upcycled former fishing nets as goal nets at farewell match
On September 24th, SV Werder Bremen’s farewell match of Claudio Pizarro was at the same time a premiere: the world’s first goal nets made of former fishing nets completed their first match day. These “fishers’ goal nets” were the result of a cooperation with BRACENET, together with whom we have been fighting for cleaner seas for many years. In the future, the plan is to replace all of SV Werder Bremen’s goal nets with fishing goal nets.
They used to catch fish, now they catch balls
On Saturday, the goals in the sold-out Weserstadion landed in goal nets made from former fishing nets. “These nets would otherwise drift through the seas as so-called ‘ghost nets’. Every year, up to one million tons of such nets end up in the sea and kill countless marine animals,” explains Benjamin Wenke, founder of BRACENET. “Ghost Diving and Healthy Seas retrieve these old, lost or discarded nets from the water and intercept discarded nets directly from fisheries to prevent them from becoming ghost nets in the first place. Often the durable material is still in very good condition and suitable for another life on land, for example on the soccer field,” adds co-founder Madeleine von Hohenthal. Playing with stars and legends such as Claudio Pizarro, Philipp Lahm, Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez, Max Kruse and Joko Winterscheidt thus provided a strong impetus for sustainability in soccer.
BRACENET manufactured the fishing nets together with Netzprofi.de according to the standards of the Bundesliga. As the nets cannot be left hanging for Bundesliga matches for the time being, BRACENET will upcycle them into exclusive bracelets for SV Werder Bremen fans. “In this way, we are giving our fans the unique chance to wear a part of ‘Claudio’s Fiesta’ on their wrist forever and at the same time make a contribution to marine conservation,” Anne-Kathrin Laufmann from the management of SV Werder Bremen explains this step. “In the long term, we plan with BRACENET to replace all our goal nets with the upcycled fishing nets and expand the project to the entire Bundesliga.” In order to build up a holistic, resource-saving product cycle, the previous goal nets are to be handed over to Nofir for recycling as soon as they have reached the end of their useful life – or are completely “shot up”.
