Your Guide to Sustainable Shoes
As my grandmother says: Spend money on good shoes and good beds - because if you’re not in one, you’re in the other!
It’s important to have comfortable and practical footwear. But when it comes to finding shoes sustainably and ethically made… barefoot seems like the best option to be honest.
Shoes are one of the most complex products to make. They are made up of several different types of materials (think of the laces, the tips of the laces, the soles, the inner, the bit underfoot, the lining etc.), each with difficult supply chains to trace back, and different ways to recycle.
But: shoes are kinda crucial! Unless you live on a tropical island somewhere.
With this in mind, this is a guide to better shoes. Shoes created by people who are working hard to change the shoe industry for the better. Shoes that are made fairly or with sustainable materials that will go back into they system after you’re finished with them.
These are not perfect shoe companies - I haven’t found any who are.
You’ll find my own personal review by the ones that I’ve worn myself (some of the shoes have been gifted to me to trial, others I have purchased).
Image by Nectar Photography
Secondhand Footwear
Type: Anything you could ever imagine!
Cost: Could be free, could be $8, could be $1000
Main Materials: Anything that exists in the shoe world, but technically it’s already recycled by you purchasing it secondhand
Made in: Worldwide!
Returns: Don’t return them, pass them on to someone new that will love them.
Secondhand footwear is hands down the most ethical route to go down - reutilising what we’ve already created is great for the budget and for the earth!