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Sustainability
When it comes to sustainability we walk the walk.
Our core principles
Minimize # of components
The Lace-Ups do with 5 components what other shoes do with 30+, simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing our impact without compromising performance.
Maximize natural materials
We maximize plant-based materials, minimize synthetic materials, and never use animal materials. It’s just the right way to do things.
Repairable and recyclable
Our shoes are designed to be disassembled and recrafted after they have been worn, allowing us to extend their useful life and keep materials out of landfills.
Dave's walk:
Dave was convinced consumer brands could be made into a force for good.
Micah's walk:
Micah was convinced there was a better way to make shoes.
kengos’ walk:
They teamed up to make footwear a force for good because shoes are:
Globally ubiquitous
Every person in the world wants to wear shoes, so making them in a more sustainable way can have a massive impact.
Personally expressive
Your shoes tell the world about who you are, we’re striving to create that new look for the conscious consumer.
Our Strategy
Fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation of our end-to-end supply chain in a data driven manner.
What drives a majority of footwear’s GHG emissions today?
Typical shoes are made of 30+ components that:
1. Are overwhelmingly made of petroleum or animal-derived materials
2. Each requires their own set of factories, raw materials, transportation, etc.
Typical shoes require 300+ processing steps to assemble, making them:
1. Resource intensive and complex manufacturing
2. Hard to break down once disposed of
Bottom line: Shoes today are not designed with the future in mind and end up spending centuries in landfills.
What is our approach?
Simplify our products through smart design.
Eliminate unnecessary components from our shoes, limiting the complexity of our supply chain and it’s overall carbon footprint.
Maximize the use of natural resources.
Use renewable resources which are produced by nature and easier to break down at the end of their useful life.
Extend the useful life of our shoes.
Leverage our glue free 1Knot™ construction which allows us to disassemble, repair, and recraft our shoes. More to come on this in 2021.
Close the loop of our supply chain -
Take back completely worn shoes.
Recycle as much of our shoe as possible back into our supply chain as a source of raw materials.
Composte all other elements of our shoe.
More to come on this very soon!
Our progress so far
Designed a shoe with 5 plant-based components.
87% plant-based, 11% minerals, 2% synthetics — soon to be 100% plant-based
Completely animal-free
Only 5 components per shoe vs. the status quo of 30+ components
Invented (and filed for a patent on) a new way to make shoes.
Our 1Knot™ construction binds our shoes together without adhesives or chemicals, which:
Makes the environment safer for our workers by eliminating harmful chemicals from our supply chain.
Facilitates disassembly of our shoes for recrafting (extending their useful life) and recycling (closing the loop of our supply chain).
Invented (and filed for a patent on) a new natural rubber formulation.
Maximizes natural content (most “natural” rubber is actually < 50% natural rubber).
Has the durability of a work boot but breaks down 35X faster than traditional “natural” rubber.
Redesigned the typical shoe box.
Our shoe box takes up 40% of a typical shoebox minimizing the transportation impact (and cost).
Our next steps for 2022
