We were surfing online, selecting important content to share with our readers, when suddenly something just caught our attention. The german magazine Spiegel, in its international online section, cured important content about sustainable fashion.
The journalist Philipp Seibt frames several aspects of sustainability, and details about shoes are among them, and they include a Portuguese company, Ultrashoes.
Don’t let you be mistaken by its clumsy logo design and old-fashioned website, this company manufactures organic shoes. The owner, Pedro Lima explains to the journalist:
Earlier shoe models produced by the Portuguese firm Ultrashoes looked natural, but actually contained plastic. Cork does grow in Portugal and therefore is right out the front door, but it doesn’t have the correct properties for shoe construction and as such was strengthened using manmade materials. “Today we are able to use organic cotton,” writes Pedro Lima of Ultrashoes. “And we’re relying more and more on upcycled materials.”
in The Search for Sustainable Fashion – Spiegel Online International
Cork has been used in shoes by several brands, and our readers can remember Rutz, that now has also a children line. Nevertheless we didn’t expect to hear that plastic was involved in the shoes manufacturing.
For ages, Portuguese brands have been hiding themselves from customers due to several reasons, like lack of quality, roughness of materials, among other reasons. In Germany, The sustainable footwear is found and sold under the name Fairticken.
The brand refers that “The soles are often made up of 70% old tires or old shredded soles. The inner lining is made entirely of organic cotton. The outer material of natural cork or microfibre is used in PET recycling. Cork is known by its good material properties and high environmental friendliness. The cork comes from Portuguese cork forests that are sustainably managed.
More than just eco-friendly materials,the shoes are developed in close cooperation with a Portuguese family business. The brand points out how the company shares the vision of a sustainable footwear production and continues with a lot of enthusiasm and inventiveness committed. The operation is near now trendy and world recognised city of Porto. Most suppliers are locals and are deliberately selected in order to reduce transport distances and strengthen local structures, reducing the carbon footprint.
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