By: Colleen Heenan
Any of my friends would be the first to admit that I am the last person they come to for fashion advice. I am not always the most up to date on newest trends in the fashion world, and I am okay with that. Though, I am perceptive enough to notice an increased trend in green clothing, and in particular “green” shoes.
The most recent incidence I have heard about came from the company Payless. They have signed a contract with eco designer Summer Rayne Oakes whom is producing a line of sustainably made shoes. The shoes are made from Organic hemp, cotton and recycled materials. The main catch for these shoes is that everyone can afford them. They have been estimated to cost around $30-40 and you will see them around spring 2009.
Another company known for their eco promotion of shoes is Planet Shoes.com. They have an entire line called the eco-logical shoe shop where you can choose from a number of brands and styles of shoes that are all made from recycled materials, animal friendly products or manufactured in plants with sustainable intentions. This site has shoes that are a little on the pricey side, but no more then what you would pay for if you bought non-eco friendly shoes from the same company.
And for the runners out there, the shoe company Brookes has created a shoe where the midsole can break down more easily in landfills. They are called BioMoGo midsoles and are made of natural, non-toxic materials that increase the rate of biodegradation by encouraging anaerobic microbes to breakdown the midsole. The company claims that they will save 30 million pounds of landfill waste over the next 20 years. Since a normal midsole can take over 1,000 years to breakdown these BioMoGo’s claims to only take 20 years.
What about your used, old, worn down tennis shoes, what to do with them? Well the shoe company Nike started a shoe recycling program almost twenty years ago called Reuse-A-Shoe. This program takes shoes, of any brand, and recycles its materials into athletic materials such as basketball courts, tennis courts and running tracks for people around the world. Since the start of this program, Nike has recycled over 21 million pairs of athletic shoes and mad more then 265 sport surfaces.
Since our feet is what connects us to this earth, I think it is important to put a sustainable barrier between the two, if any. Check out these websites and see if any styles or philosophies catch your fashionable eye.
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