Fashion no longer means glitter and glitz with a superficial touch of polished elegance and eccentric designers. The creative world of design has grown socially responsible in the last couple of years, designers have acquired a grown awareness for environmental problems. An eco-fashion attitude breeze as swiped over the fashion industry with the use of a major quantity of environmental friendly fabrics and adopting more responsible techniques when working with materials and colors. Organic cotton is adopted and raw materials that are pesticides free or recycled try to be prioritized. Don’t be fool be appearances, eco-friendly fashion has nothing to do with a hippy-grungy look; green fashion is fresh, forward looking and as elegant and glamorous has high-end designer prêt-à- porter. Simple Shoes, a line for outdoors athletic shoes embody the combination of style and comfort blended the use of recycled materials and eco-friendly production and manufacturing procedures.
In 1993, Deckers Outdoor Corporation acquired Simple Shoes: shoes for a happy planet, founded by Eric Meyer. Aware of the need to protect the environment, this company is working hard at combining business prerogatives with the creation of shoes using recycled materials. They are strong believers in the fact that business can be done in a sustainable way, on their website the company declares: “HOW we make our shoes is just as important as WHY we make them. That means finding more sustainable ways of doing business so we can make a gazillion more” (Source: http://www.deckers.com/Brands/simpleshoes.aspx). This company seems to declare the need to be coherent by putting into practices the environmental friendly they pretend to embody. The Simple Shoes brand was born in 1991, as a response to a generation of “over-hyped, over-marketed, and over-teched sneakers” (Source: http://www.simpleshoes.com/info/history.aspx?g=info). After having launched the Green Toe collection, shoes made of natural materials, the company realized that working with raw materials wasn’t enough considering all the waste and pollution that was out there. For this reason, in 2007, the company decided to introduce recycled products such as plastic bottles and care tires in the manufacturing process of their shoes. In 2008, Simple Shoes decided to introduce brand new materials like hemp, recycled bicycle tires and car tire inner tubes.
The company’s website as a list of all the materials they use for they making of their simple shoes. They use PET (polyethylene terephthalate) the plastic used for water bottles, in order to make some of their shoelaces and in order to make the wrapping around the latex elastic. With a single used care tire they manage to “make the outsoles for six pairs of men’s size 9 shoes, by using recycled car tires” (Source: http://www.simpleshoes.com/info/materials.aspx?g=info). This is an innovative way to give a new life to materials and resources that are considered “dead” and are harmful for the environment. Moreover, the cotton they used is herbicides, pesticides and or chemical fertilizers free. They are proud to use cotton that hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals substances that too often end up in the water that citizens use for their daily choirs and even more dangerously the water they drink. One of their most innovative materials they use for their shoes is bamboo, one of the fastest growing plants on the face of earth.
These eco-green shoes are working and sales seem to demonstrate it. Yet, according to Brad Little, national sales manager, seems to think that there is much more than eco-friendly materials behind the company’s success. Brad Little says that “only 10% to 15% of its customers are green buyers” and adds that the shoes are “sufficiently good-looking that customers will pull them off a store shelf to begin with” (Source: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2009/id20090928_302174.htm). The shoes are competing against standard shoes that are over-marketed over-technological and often anything but simple. Being green, has become a trend in most States, yet the shoes sell also thanks to their young and fresh esthetics and their comfort value. The timing is perfect, Simple Shoes has started to get noticed at a time where there is a growing important share in the fashion market for eco-friendly clothing and accessories.
Part of its 2010 collection, Simple has also launched bold new bags, sporty and made of Recycled PET ripstop nylon. The bags are light, ready for a life on the go, they also have a custom made space for your mp3 player or ipod. The latest shoe collection has introduced the trendiest styles with leopard prints and light pastel colors in order to catch the heart and the eye of even the trendiest customers.
Reviews have been great and the shoes seem to be a crowd pleaser amongst customers from all ages. In 2005, eco-friendly fashion debuted at the New York fashion week. This marked the beginning of a new era and signaled the need to stop ignoring environmental problems. Fashion designers launch clothing trends and lifestyles that are followed by thousands. Mixing style, elegance and innovation with recycled materials and a greener lifestyle is a trend that will and needs to come back every season.
interesting post! i think it is a great way to show that fashion is not just about looking good! deeper values must be considered..!
great shoes..comfy and great for outdoors activities! i got my first pair last week!
society raves about the need to protect the environment, save the oceans and so on! but how many of us actually make a concrete gesture in our daily lives?
it starts by something so simple as buying eco-friendly clothes and donating what you don’t wear to charities!