Radical Recycling: Designer Brands Transforming Old Tire Rubber Into Beautiful Durable Shoes

Making footwear at Indosole.

Late summer and early fall are some of the best times for shoe fashions because they allow for such a diversity of styles, and always showing your love for the environment with your eco-choices in materials.

Sandals and beach shoes are still great, but you can also start on your fall styles with heaver materials like canvas, suede, and leather – and all made with rubber soles from recycled tires.

Always searching for the best variety of eco-made shoes, I found three fabulous companies – Indosole, soleRebel, and Yellow Port – that are worth taking a look at for their styles and commitments to the environment.

Indosole

Indosole is a fabulous Indonesian company that makes sandals and canvas beach shoes that all look great, and can be worn as part of everyday causal wear.

The materials used include banana leaves, burlaps, canvas, (man-made) vegan suede, and EVA-foam.

Photo courtesy of Indosole.

For those that don’t know much about materials, burlap is a woven fabric from the fibers of the jute plant, combined with other vegetable fibers. Canvas is a heavy-duty woven fabric usually made from cotton, linen (fibers made from the flax plant) or hemp fibers.

Vegan suede is made-made suede, usually made mostly of polyester and without using any animal products. Natural suede is a kind of animal leather.

Photo courtesy of Indosole.

EVA foam, also called ethylene vinyl acetate, has a lot of great qualities including that it’s soft and flexible, as well as really tough, crack resistant, and waterproof.

 All of the soles are made from repurposed motorbike tires. The company exclaims that, “Indosole is on a mission to salvage old motorbike tires and other trash from landfills and give them new life.”

Indosole also boasts that its “products are handmade by skilled Balinese artisans and the production process does not contain fuel-powered machines.” The company adds that it “conducts fair trade practices in its workshops.”

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Vintage Fashions Theme For Opening Runway Show At Vancouver Eco-Fashion Week

Opening this season’s Vancouver Eco Fashion Week  (April 10 – 12) will be a vintage runway show presented by the mega-thrift store Value Village. The store also carries modern designer name brands including Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Reitmans, and Eddie Bauer.

Value Village’s show was considered the ideal opening event because the store epitomizes many of the core values of the week, which include bringing new life to what already exists, keeping clothing out of landfills as long as possible, as well as supporting local community and global business initiatives.

The thrift store chain purchases its merchandise though “working relationships with 140 nonprofit partners across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Over the past 10 years, we’ve paid more than $1 billion.” said Value Village.

The chain explains how they acquire their merchandise, saying, “Our nonprofit partners contact people in the community to ask for donations of reusable clothing and household items.

“We then pay our nonprofit partners based on the number of boxes and bags of merchandise they deliver to us. Additionally, we also pay them for donations delivered directly to our stores via our community donation centers. Our staff sorts through the donations to select the highest quality reusable items, then prices, and displays them.”

Besides clothes, Value Village sells merchandise includes: shoes, toys, books, kitchenware, sporting goods, infant products, suitcases, electronics, wicker items, furniture, and collectables.

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Fall Shoe Shopping: Finding Cool Shoes That Are Eco-Conscious Too

Vegan Slouch Boot made from a soft pleather that covers the entire boot down to the two inch heel. Photo courtesy of Vegan Chic.

It’s the Fall shopping season, and time for new shoes. If your trying to find fashionable shoes that are also eco-conscious, then it can be a real struggle going out to most retail stores. They have very small to no selections.

Another option to consider is shopping online. Some exploration turned up three noteworthy sustainable websites with decent-sized shoe selections made of combinations of vegan, organic, and recycled materials. They’re: 

• Vegan Chic- a provider of shoes, boots, bags, and accessories

• Alternative Outfitters vegan boutique- a provider of shoes, boots, bags, accessories, apparel, and beauty products.

• Pristine Planet- an aggregate shopping site that brings together retailers providing shoes, boots, bags, accessories, apparel, beauty, and a plethora of other lifestyle products.

Vegan Chic, as its name implies, is a good place to explore as a site whose entire inventory, though not entirely organic, doesn’t contain any animal products. The materials used are made of plant and synthetic fibers, such as:

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Kids’ Eco-Friendly Designer Moccasin Maker Expanding Its Adult Collection

Courtesy of potamusprefers.com

LAMBERTVILLE, NJ- Nowali, a maker of kids indoor footwear and apparel, is announcing the fall/winter expansion of its adult line of moccasins from solid navy and oatmeal colors to design patterns which are currently only offered for company’s children’s and toddlers collections.

“The primary age this product is of interest for is really between 12 to 18 months, when a child starts to walk. Pediatricians recommend footwear with a soft sole so that the foot moves and develops naturally. This is a very good product for that need,” said John Haug, president of Nowali’s New Jersey-based distribution company.

Beyond toddlers, “right now the main size range for the moccasins is for children up to six years old. We have one design that goes up to 10 years old,” added Mr. Haug.

Nowali’s design collection includes patterns such as flowers, hearts, robots, space aliens, and monkeys. Regarding the designs, Mr. Haug said, “We have customers that like certain designs that are really fashion forward and that was our inspiration.”

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