The search for sustainable sandals

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If, like Carrie Bradshaw, you’re guilty of having more shoes than you have room for (she kept hers in the oven), you’re not alone. World shoe production has doubled every 20 years, from 2.5 billion pairs a year in 1950 to more than 22 billion pairs last year. where did they all go? With a comparatively small secondhand market and almost no recycling, up to 24 billion end up in landfills each year. Many contain EVA, a substance that helps cushion soles but takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.

“Shoes are very complicated. to do, with lots of different components,” says designer Nicholas Kirkwood. “These come from all over the world, there is a big environmental footprint on that side. And even if the shoe has some natural content, it’s still glued on and the sole is almost always derived from fossil fuels, so you end up with a product that doesn’t biodegrade and can’t be recycled.”

Kirkwood, who tried to reverse engineer sustainability into his designs, shut down his brand in desperation in February. But he will soon be unveiling a new design made of natural materials.

He is one of the few shoe pioneers trying to find solutions in a notoriously difficult field. The late shoe designer Camilla Skovgaard, who once worked at Marc Jacobs, was another. His Originally The brand makes jute sandals that you should be able to bury at the bottom of your garden. The shoes are a hit in Ibiza, where Of Origin is based, but they’re unlikely to last long on rainy trails.

A 100 percent leather sandal is another option, but only if the leather is treated properly. Leather may be a natural material, but the tanning process uses toxic chromium, which seeps into the ground and rivers. Root Atelier has tried to make a sustainable summer wedge with vegetable-tanned leather. Inspired by the style of the 70s and handmade in Spain, the shoes also use cork, wood and wicker. The hardware is metal, but that should be all that’s left at the bottom of the compost heap.

gabriela hearst she is just as ambitious, having been obsessed with shoemaking since the beginning of her career. Drawing inspiration from English shoe brands like Tricker’s and John Lobb, designed to last a lifetime, as well as masters like Salvatore Ferragamo, she prefers to look to history for answers. “If it’s worked for hundreds of years, it’s going to keep working,” she says.

One of his favorite materials is cork, “since you don’t cut the tree, you shave it and the tree regenerates.” Their Anactoria Mule uses a deerskin upper and a leather-wrapped cork platform sole. He also makes wooden heels (from FSC-certified forests) for his Mika, Graham and Hill sandals, but he acknowledges that the soles are tricky. He Ryka’s sandal has been developed with a new Bloom technology, which is “the process of turning seaweed into a viable foam product. The algae are collected from Lake Tai in China as an environmental restoration project.”

EVA helps cushion soles, but takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade

Scaling these innovations is more difficult. In her role as creative director at chloe, Hearst has turned to recycled materials. “The strategy has been to reduce the impact: for the Nama collection, we use water-soluble glue and recycled materials, resulting in 80% less water and 35% less greenhouse gases.” Hearst has also partnered with ocean solea non-profit organization that recycles trash, making a virtue of the three billion flip flops thrown away each year by repurposing them into multicolored Lou sandals.

Ultimately, as with most sustainability, the real test comes with longevity. “I come from the gaucho culture, where people had a few pairs of boots that lasted a lifetime,” Hearst adds. “When I create a product, it is with the idea of ​​inheritance. That’s how I grew up.”

As a society, we are no longer in the habit of repairing shoes. Specialized companies will clean your sneakers, but a broken heel or strap on a pair of shoes will often send them to the trash. In grenson, the shoes are made to last 10 to 15 years, and the company hopes to extend that with its Back On The Road program. “Send your Grenson shoes in and we’ll repair them, re-stitch the uppers, and then sell them as used at a lower cost,” says owner Tim Little.

Work with UAL The Circular Design Center try new materials, but “if there was a material as good as leather, everyone would use it”. She has started working with an Italian leather tanned with olive leaves. They also use recycled materials from production waste for the soles, which is “another step in the right direction. On the soles you can see little chips of all different colors, they are very different and beautiful.”

Ultimately, “the best option with shoes is to have less,” says Hearst. This is bad news for Carrie Bradshaw, but with annual shoe production currently expected to hit 30 billion pairs by 2030, there’s a case for buying.
the best quality you can afford. And using them forever.