Sustainability Project
Footmates® is very proud to be able to offer, beginning in Spring 2022, our first selection of “Sustainability Project” footwear.
These select items have been produced with our Project’s “Guiding Principles” in mind, and are the culmination of all of our internal research and discussions with our production, sourcing, and design partners around ways to make our Footmates® products “more sustainable”.
These items are not perfect, but they are the start of what we know will be the future of all Footmates® products and what we believe will be the future of all footwear over time.
Footmates® will continue to actively add items to the “Sustainability Project” portfolio each season, so please keep an eye out for our latest additions.
Click here to see our current selection of “Sustainability Project” items.
Guiding Principles for the Footmates® “Sustainability Project”:
- Produce “High Quality” Footmates® products.
High quality footwear lasts longer and allows you to purchase LESS shoes over time.
Consuming less is the number one way to lower your carbon footprint and therefore lesson your environmental impact.
- Use more Recycled Materials.
Recycled materials save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste to landfills, and prevent pollution associated with harvesting new raw materials.
- Use Advanced Materials.
Technologically advanced materials can provide superior performance and can be more animal and environmentally friendly.
- Reduce and Reuse.
Reducing the amount of materials used in products and packaging can lower the environmental impact.
- The most efficient way to reduce waste is to not create it in the first place. Lower material usage reduces the amount of waste created throughout the production of a product and also reduces the waste that can end up in landfills at the end of a products lifecycle.
- Lower material usage can equal less weight. When footwear or packaging is lighter in weight, it has less mass and therefore has less of a carbon footprint. Lowering the weight also reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation throughout the product lifecycle.
Reuse provides an excellent, environmentally-preferred alternative to other waste management methods, because it reduces air, water and land pollution, limits the need for new natural resources, such as timber, petroleum, fibers and other materials, and conserves the limited space in our existing landfills.