Softest Shoes on the Planet

Something grabbed our attention today: one of our customers, Nood Floorcovering, sent out a press release about an installation of their cool faux-flokati tufted flooring Spork being installed in a shoe store called Zümfoot. One of the new shoe brand’s features is their push toward better “eco friendly manufacturing... materials and technologies.” Their leathers are vegetable tanned instead of being tanned by conventional chemicals (which leaves a smaller environmental footprint + a finish more resistant to perspiration). Also the cork in their footbeds is rapidly renewable and they use 100% recycled paper shoe boxes, pamphlets and brochures.

Shoes? Yes, shoes. Oh, that foot voodoo they do.

Graffiti shoes, sustainable shoes, reused shoes, economic development via shoes. Perhaps so much happens in this sector because the product are on nearly every pair of feet that work in the Western marketplace. Nike is not only using water-based glues in eco-marketed shoes, it is even sharing the technologies with Timberland.

And we can’t help but think... shoes certainly get a lot of wear; could this glue find use in other products? Hmm... read here about a great step in the right direction!