Vivo Barefoot featured on thedailygreen.com
| 03rd August 2009 |
Super Green Sneaks of Summer
Comfy eco-friendly shoes from the likes of Levi's, Loomstate for Keds, Terra Plana and New Balance.
According to ecofashion designers and retailers, shoes probably have the largest environmental footprint of any of our apparel choices (pun intended!). Even after years of reporting in this area, I was a bit surprised by this fact since shoes generally last for some time, especially if you buy good quality and repair them when necessary. Most people I know aren't going all Imelda Marcos shoe-crazy and usually have between six and ten pairs of shoes that they wear regularly (many guys even fewer). Compared to the number of clothes in the average person's closet, shoes would seems to have far less impact.
But once one understands how shoes are made, which involves a number of manufactured materials to make up their various layers, including super-toxic glues to hold them together, and chemical dyes and hardware (not to mention the labor required for putting all of that together), one starts to get why shoes use as much energy and materials--- and produce as much waste-- as they do.
According to Greenpeace, the demand for leather goods and beef by Nike, Timberland, Adidas, Ikea, Wal-Mart and Honda, among other corporate leaders, is helping to fuel the growth of the Brazilian cattle industry on forestland that has been illegally cleared, the environmental advocacy group writes in its latest report, "Slaughtering the Amazon". Nike and Timberland have agreed and are taking action.
And leather's just one piece of the shoe puzzle.
Of all the shoes in the world: flats, pumps, espadrilles, hiking boots, or flip flops, the one that gets chucked the most frequently are sneakers. With that in mind, I've been noticing that there are some seriously green sneaks around and about these days, and every single one of these is as cute as can be to boot (ha ha!).
The Vivo Barefoot sneaks are not only cute (I have the orange/taupe pair pictured) but they are incredibly green, with recycled insoles, heavy-metal free leathers, vegetable tanned leathers, pure latex soling materials, recycled rubber soles and recycled foam foot beds. Phew! And if that isn't green enough, go barefoot!
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