Sustainable shoe design is good design!
| 01st April 2008 |
Sustainable shoe design is good design! We have been using an 'eco-matrix' in Terra Plana for over 6 months now. We 'score' the products on a series of sustainable factors. Each category has a 1-5 score giving a total maximum of 30 points. If a product scores less than 20 - we will re-look at the product and re-engineer it or drop it.
i) Efficiency: How many components does a product have, is it simple to construct, how much energy is used in production.
ii) Sole: Is it durable, lightweight, easy to attach (how much glue does it need?).
iii) Upper: Is it made out of eco friendly materials, is it simple, light?
iv) Function: Is the shoe comfortable, is it healthy? does it have emotional durability? a narrative of use to encourage user love for the product?
v) Graphic: At Terra Plana we make most of our shoes for people living in cities. The shoes need to be 'admired' by other city dwellers and garner urban respect! Does the shoe have graphic design?
vi) Logistics: How much packaging is needed? Is it easy to transport? Is the packaging eco friendly? How much waste?
At Terra Plana we believe being eco is not just about being recycled or natural organic... There are many more factors that make a shoe sustainable. For example, The Bike shoe (a shoe made of old bike tyres, innertubes, recycled denim lining and recycled E-Leather almost entirely recycled shoe). As far as most people are concerned it is one of the most eco friendly shoes that we make - i mean look at it!
However when we run the Bike Shoe through our Eco matrix, although it scores highly for materials used, it scores badly on the ‘Efficiency' matrix as it is a very labour intensive product to put together. The recycled tyres are varied and preparation is time consuming. It also uses a lot of energy to produce the shoe with negative moulds needed in the bonding process.
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