The fast fashion market, wherein garments move in and out of stores rapidly, is considered a major contributor to current environmental issues, and proving less than sustainable. Fuelled by social media, consumers want to get a hold of the latest trends as quickly as possible, and retailers must rapidly increase production to meet demand.This constant push in production can often lead to overproduction and huge amounts of waste as well as a squeeze in resources needed for products.
By some estimates, the shoe market makes up nearly 30% of the fashion market by value. According to the U.S department of the interior, Americans throw away over 200 million pairs of shoes each year — often ending up in landfills, taking years to decompose, becoming a strain on resources.
Brands such as Birkenstock and Toms have begun to try and resolve this issue.
For Birkenstock it’s not about making sustainability a market-driven proposition, but rather making it an expression of their corporate values, using sustainable cork in all of their products. Toms have pioneered vegan versions of their shoes using new materials to create a similar feel and experience to their original product.
Ten years ago these products would have been considered undesirable. ‘Eco-friendly shoes’ felt like the opposite of fashion — they were ‘worthy’ and unexciting. Now mainstream brands are under pressure to show off sustainable practices.
Allbirds, a new shoe company, are making environmentally sustainable shoes after believing the industry isn’t doing enough. They use their own homemade yarn that puts together renewable materials of tree + merino (Trino). Their stated ambition is to create a luxury product, but with more care for the environment. If this all sounds very worthy but probably low in impact, you’d be wrong: having been founded a mere four years ago, Allbirds was recently valued at $1.4 billion.
And sportswear brands are now getting in on the act. Adidas has released ‘Adidas X Parley’ which are their classic running shoes but are party made from 75% upcycled plastic waste.
Why is this interesting to Kitchen8? It shows how established industries are rapidly changing in response to concerns that were considered niche only a decade ago. Environmental issues are no longer a ‘nice to have’. In fact, the sustainability of a product — at least in the shoe industry — is now becoming a fundamental aspect of desirability.
