Every year, the footwear industry generates 700.000 tons of CO2. A third of these depend on extracting and refining fossil fuels to create synthetic materials such as ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and polyurethane foams for shoe soles. How about adopting different processes? A bit like ReCork.
Take an example. reCORK is an initiative launched in 2008 as a wine cork recycling program. It has come a long way since then: today it has raised over 128 million pin of cork, with which his development team tries to do everything, without using plastics, foams or other crap based on fossil fuels.
The latest innovation? A carbon-negative midsole, which is part of an entire collection of shoes.
Cork: let's talk about it
Cork is an exceptional sustainable material that can be used to absorb atmospheric carbon. It grows in the form of bark and can be harvested from an oak tree without cutting it down. This makes it an excellent carbon sink: it absorbs so much of it that... it can make soles that technically "de-pollute" the planet!
And this, in the case I'm talking about today, without creating a shoe that serves no purpose. The new SOLE cork collection is water resistant and flexible (unlike similar attempts made in the past). It is ecological, non-toxic, antimicrobial. In other words: it's a nice shoe if you don't care about the environment.
What if you are interested?
In that case you'll be pleased to know that the midsole isn't the only recycled part of the shoe: the materials used include insoles made with an insole made from sugar cane. Dissipating the carbon and cushioning the walk becomes really sweet, right? My proverbial boomer jokes, even though I am part of the glorious Generation X that can still save the world.
The soles, which make up the lower part of the shoe, are made with sustainably harvested rubber sap. Resistant, grippy and consume 7 times less the energy needed to make rubber soles.
Cork shoe, even the style is ethical
Good outside, good inside. SOLE ReCork is elegant and ethical: the upper is made with merino wool from sustainable and cruelty-free farms. The rest of the shoe? Bison hair. I am not joking. The material is called Blue's BisonShield, and it comes from waste from the livestock industry.
Just two Achilles' heels: they are not vegan shoes (damn wool, damn HAIR!) and they have PET plastic laces (but recycled from single-use water bottles). Personally, I can easily ignore it.
What can I say: a meticulous design and a real shoe, not a product to show off greenwashing. This is why I talk about it without any sponsorship agreement, without taking a euro and without even having received a pair of shoes. I buy things for myself! Ts!
