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Saola knows the fashion industry can be cruel to the environment and is seeking ways to address the issue. The company's shoes are some of the most eco-friendly on the market today.
Saola knows the fashion industry can be cruel to the environment and is seeking ways to address the issue. The company's shoes are some of the most eco-friendly on the market today.

These Shoemakers Want to Save the World

Meet the women behind a new wave of companies that are using footwear to solve global problems

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鈥淲e鈥檙e nothing like Toms,鈥 says Maro LaBlance, the U.S. representative聽of a new company called that鈥檚 making environmentally friendly sneakers. But during focus groups and other meetings where she has introduced her startup, LaBlance heard plenty of the T-word. 鈥 is not about sustainable manufacturing,鈥 she says. 鈥淵es, they give back, but their project is humanitarian, not environmental.鈥

The distinction is lost on some shoppers, for whom Toms has become the gold standard of do-good footwear. That company鈥檚 founder, , noticed during his travels in Argentina that many kids lacked shoes. To solve that problem, he launched Toms in 2006: its translates each Toms sale into a pair of shoes for a needy child. Recipients now total more than 60 million.

That鈥檚 a tough standard to beat. But two brands聽are trying to reinvent the shoes-as-betterment formula with companies that are leveraging footwear into improved standards for both people and the environment.

Saola

If we truly realized the environmental ugliness that happens as a result of making our shoes, we鈥檇 probably choose to go barefoot. Clothes made with organic cotton and recycled plastics are becoming commonplace. But footwear is lagging: It鈥檚 the (after the oil and gas industry). Toxic glues, leathers tanned with suspected carcinogens, cottons grown with vast quantities of pesticides and insecticides鈥攕uch elements combine to give shoes a ghastly environmental scorecard.

Saola鈥檚 founder, Guillaume Linossier, sought a more eco-friendly way to make the kind of casual sneakers that he and his friends live in every day. He recruited LaBlance to be Saola鈥檚 U.S. representative. (Other team members work in France.)

The only factories that make vulcanized-rubber outsoles (common among skate shoes and the ubiquitous ) are in China and Vietnam. Saola chose a Chinese plant that met its sustainability standards, sourced organic fabrics and laces, figured out a way to make a 100 percent recycled midsole, and developed a construction method that uses fewer seams and thus generates fewer waste cutouts. The outsole is a mix of natural and synthetic rubber聽and incorporates bits of sawdust from the mill next to the factory. 鈥淭hose wood chips would鈥檝e been burned otherwise,鈥 says LaBlance. 鈥淎nd because the outsole is 15 percent wood, it lets us use less rubber.鈥

鈥淧eople expect it now. It鈥檚 not enough to sell something that鈥檚 cool and unique. People want to know, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 your give-back aspect?鈥 And if there is none, they want to know, 鈥榃hy not?鈥欌

Instead of packaging the shoes in a box, Saola is using scrap fabric, which is typically burned, to make a reusable tote that closes like a drybag. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at every aspect,鈥 LaBlance says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e chipping away at all the wasteful manufacturing practices.鈥

鈥攊t met its $28,135聽goal weeks before the funding period ended鈥攂ut the company expects to stock an expanded line of four men鈥檚 styles and four women鈥檚 styles with outdoor retailers in spring 2018. Then, Saola will donate 5 percent of each sale to environmental initiatives. Customers can choose from an array of land, water, and animal conservation projects.

鈥淚 would love to see a community of people get behind this,鈥 says LaBlance. Saola鈥檚 manufacturing methods can provide the model other companies need to follow suit and shift global manufacturing norms toward a healthier standard. And by choosing Saola, LaBlance says, 鈥減eople can watch the impact that they make through their purchases.鈥

Bangs

Bangs shoes, which are modeled after sneakers worn by China farmworkers, sends 20 percent of its profits to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world.
Bangs shoes, which are modeled after sneakers worn by China farmworkers, sends 20 percent of its profits to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world. (Courtesy of Bangs)

鈥淚 used to think business was evil,鈥 says Hannah Davis, who describes herself as a former 鈥渄amn the man!鈥 hippie kid in college. Then she started traveling after graduation, in 2009, and realized that 鈥渕oney isn鈥檛 necessarily evil. It鈥檚 what you do with it that鈥檚 good or bad.鈥

Inspired to parlay business into social betterment, Davis founded in 2012. The company鈥檚 sneakers are modeled after those worn by China鈥檚 farm and factory workers. And its do-good goal isn鈥檛 environmental but social: Bangs donates 20 percent of its profits to a nonprofit partner, , which issues loans to entrepreneurs and small businesses worldwide. The partnership just invested in its 667th enterprise.

鈥淭here are two main schools of thought on how to give back,鈥 explains Davis. One is the 鈥済ive stuff鈥 approach: People鈥攅specially in the wake of disaster鈥攏eed clothes, building materials, shoes. That鈥檚 the Toms model.

The second school of thought gives opportunities rather than goods. 鈥淚 was blown away when I discovered that concept,鈥 says Davis. Thus, she dedicated Bangs (鈥渉elp鈥 in Mandarin, a language Davis speaks fluently) to helping people prosper economically. Her formula seems to work: So far, 99 percent of the Bangs/Kiva loans have been repaid.

And buyers like knowing they鈥檙e supporting more than their own consumerism. 鈥淧eople seem to expect it now,鈥 says Davis. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not enough to sell something that鈥檚 cool and unique. People want to know, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 your give-back aspect?鈥 And if there is none, they want to know, 鈥榃hy not?鈥欌

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