Author : Marina
Together with the urge of a revolution in sustainability for fashion brands, the footwear sector has to reconsider as well his role in this scenario. Designers and footwear companies are struggling to research and develop shoes with less harmful impact on the environment and of course, cruelty-free.
当服装品牌面临向可持续发展变革的巨大压力时，鞋子行业也在走出下一步。对于生产对环境伤害小，并且不包含对动物残忍的鞋子，设计师和各个品牌都绞尽脑汁。
What does it mean “sustainable shoes”?
一双可持续的鞋子长什么样？
The term sustainable shoes is very broad. Mostly it involves the design of shoes that would use new natural and easy-to-decompose materials, would pay attention to the gas emissions, would be transparent in its supply chain guaranteeing that natural resources, animal welfare, good labor conditions are respected.
可持续鞋子的概念很宽泛，主要包括天然易分解材料的使用，注意温室气体排放，供应链透明，尊重自然，动物福利，和劳动者权益。
What is the environmental problem associated with shoes?
鞋子会引起什么环境问题呢？
The main environmental problem related to footwear is its difficulty to decompose since it is mainly made by plastic and glues, materials that are hard to recycle, then gas emissions and animal leather that is cruel and very heavy on the environment especially in the tanning process.
鞋子的主要问题是分解难，原因还要看其主要原料。塑料和胶本身就有很高的碳成本，而且很难回收。而动物皮革不但非常残忍，而且其加工污染很严重。
Seven Most Sustainable Shoes Brands
7个可持续品牌
Let’s explore together seven brands that are trying their best to be as sustainable as possible.
一起来看一下7个在认真做可持续鞋子的品牌吧。
1.NEMANTI
Made in Italy, Vegan luxury brand, this company is making its way into the fashion market. The brand Nemanti Milano participated to the Milan Fashion Week 2014 making their brand international. This company pays attention to different aspects: animals, all materials are cruelty-free; environment, they use plant based materials; workmanship, absence of outsourcing to other countries. The shoes are made from the more traditional linen, waxed cotton and wood, to more innovative materials such as Alcantara with zero CO2 emissions and faux leather derived from the refuse of the production of grains. The Spring-Summer 2018 collection sees the use of pellemela, a faux leather obtained from apple cores discarded by agribusiness industries, and 100% cellulose pure. They are approved by PETA and LAV as vegan brand with the highest ethical rating level. If you are interested in this brand, you can find all the products on their website, they ship worldwide.
诞生于意大利，这款vegan奢侈品牌知名度越来越大。在2014年Nemanti Milano通过参加米兰时装周得到国际知名度。他们仔细考虑不同方面：所有材料都不含对动物的残忍；一律使用从植物提取的材料；不把生产外包。生产材料包括传统的棉，麻，木头，以及创新材料如零碳排放的alcantara，谷物加工废料制作的假皮革。2018春夏款用到了pellemala，用苹果核做的100%纤维素的假皮革。因此，PETA和LAV把它评作最高级别的vegan品牌。可以在他们官网上看看哦，他们全世界都送。
2. Stella McCartney
Stella is the pioneer of Vegetarian Shoes. The company uses a lot of new materials for their shoes collection like recycled polyester, sustainable wood, regenerated nylon. Their leather alternatives look good and are also better for the environment. Using recycled polyester instead of Brazilian calf leather, for example, creates 24 times less of an environmental impact. All of the wood used in their shoes comes from sustainably certified sources that can be traced in all the supply chain. With the partnership with Adidas, Stella makes the iconic Adidas Stan Smith sneakers completely leather-free.
Stella是vegan鞋子的先驱。他们用诸如回收的聚酯纤维，可持续木材，回收尼龙等新材料来做鞋。他们的皮革替代品不但看相很棒，而且对环境很好。单单是用回收的聚酯纤维代替巴西小牛皮，就把对环境的影响降低了24倍。他们用的所有的木头都是认证过渠道采购的的可持续木头。在和Adidas的合作中，Stella把标志性的Stan Smith球鞋做成完全不用皮革。
Stella McCartney truly believes that the world is full of raw material that is already in use, or on its way to landfill, where it will take centuries to decompose. The most logical next step is to reuse what we already have. With this idea, they created the LOOP LACE-UP SNEAKERS made by recycled polyester with up to 50% less energy than virgin polyester.
Stella认为原材料其实很丰富，而且很多还被扔到垃圾厂里，几百年后才分解。最合理的做法是重新使用我们已有的东西。在这个概念的指引下，他们做出了LOOP LACE-UP球鞋。这款鞋完全用回收的聚酯纤维，比新的聚酯纤维少用一半的能源。
If you are interested in this brand, search on Taobao Stella McCartney Online Shop.
他们在淘宝有官方旗舰店哦，搜索“Stella McCartney Online Shop”。
3. AllBirds
The New Zealand-American footwear company wants to have a positive impact on the environment. The company's goal is to eliminate their products' carbon footprint. So until they reach the goal of zero, they are taxing themselves for the carbon they emit and investing in offsets to fund projects that neutralize their footprint.
这个新西兰美国公司希望对环境作出贡献，最终目标是把他们产品的碳足迹降到零。所以他们会自己给自己强加碳排放税，把税款投资到减排的项目中，让最终的碳排放为零。
Their shoes are mainly made of wool, which process uses 60% less energy than materials used in typical synthetic shoes. Important for all the animal lovers is that they work with leading organizations like ZQ Merino to ensure that wool is held to high standards of farming, land management, and animal welfare. Tree fiber is sourced from South African farms that minimize fertilizer and rely on rainfall, not irrigation. Compared to traditional materials like cotton, it uses 95% less water and cuts our carbon footprint in half. Sugar - the sugarcane used to make SweetFoam™ is sourced from southern Brazil, where it relies on rainwater, not irrigation. It is a fully renewable resource that grows quickly, removing carbon from the atmosphere in the process. Trino™, is nature’s super-yarn that combines the properties of before mentioned renewable materials Tree and Merino. Moreover, the company uses plastic bottles for laces, recycled cardboard for shoe packaging, castor bean oil for increasing the natural content in the insoles, and Bio-TPU for eyelets.
他们的鞋主要用羊毛做，因为处理的能耗比合成材料低60%。同时让动物达人欣慰的是，他们和诸如ZQ Merino的组织合作，确保他们的羊毛达到极高的土地管理标准和动物福利标准。木头纤维从一个减少使用化肥，并不用灌溉而是用雨水的南非农场采购。与棉花相比，这个木头纤维少用95%的水和50%的碳足迹。用来做SweetFoam™的甘蔗是从巴西南部的只用雨水不用灌溉的农场里采购的。作为可再生资源，这个甘蔗不但长得快，而且还起到从空气里固碳的作用。Trino™是一种结合了羊毛和木头纤维性质的的超级纤维。他们还用塑料瓶做鞋带，用回收纸箱做鞋盒，用蓖麻子油加工鞋垫，天然热塑性聚氨酯弹性橡胶来做打孔。
Allbirds new women’s TREE DASHERS use above-mentioned sustainable materials. The midsole is made of carbon negative foam derived from sugarcane and the uppers are made from a combination of eucalyptus fibers and wool. If you are interested in this brand, search on Taobao All Birds Online Shop.
Allbirds女士的新款TREE DASHERS就用了上面说到的材料。鞋底中部用碳负值的甘蔗泡沫做成，鞋面用桉树纤维和羊毛混织而成。想买的话，在淘宝上搜索“All Birds Online Shop”。
4. Womsh
The Italian brand Womsh vegan line made with apple fibers is entirely eco-friendly, non-toxic and biocompatible. The company is very into sustainability showing results like 23.000 square meters of forest preserved in 5 years, 2500 pairs of shoes recycled since 2016, offset more than 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission since 2014. Moreover, almost all the energy used by the company comes from renewable sources. They are committed to planting trees on the land that has been deforested or on land that has never been used as forest land. They plant trees to offset the CO2 produced during the life cycle of their shoes. In 5 years, they have protected more than 11,000 square meters of forest per year.
意大利品牌Womsh的vegan系列用苹果纤维做成，完全环保无毒。这家公司非常重视可持续，5年内保护了两万三千平米的森林，2016年来回收了两千五百双鞋，2014年来抵消了一百吨碳排放。几乎所有能耗都用可再生能源。为了抵消生产过程中产生的碳，他们种很多树。过去5年中，他们每年保护了一万一千平米的森林。
Their VEGAN CONCEPT WHITE shoe for example is cruelty-free and water-repellent 100% apple skin upper, with natural fabric and apple skin lining, recycled PET laces, extractable insole lined with natural fabric, recyclable rubber sole, recycled eco-friendly packaging.
解剖他们的VEGAN CONCEPT WHITE鞋子，100%用苹果皮纤维做的防水上部，天然纤维打边，回收PET做的鞋带，天然纤维打边鞋垫，可回收橡胶鞋底，回收材料做的包装。
However, the company is not completely 100% vegan. Hopefully, they will turn completely vegan in the future and it will be also thanks to consumers’ requests. For this reason, pay attention to purchase only their vegan line. They ship worldwide.
当然，这个品牌不是100%vegan。如果大家多买他们的vegan产品，那说不定就会带来好的改变了呢。他们邮寄到全世界哦。
5. Bahatika
This German company is absolutely 100% Vegan. They truly believe in a sustainable lifestyle and therefore decided to increase the efforts to drive the change towards a better tomorrow. Besides using vegan leather and natural materials, they collaborate with ONE TREE PLANTED to plant a tree for every pair of shoes purchased for fighting deforestation.
这家德国企业100%vegan。他们真心的相信可持续生活方式的价值，所以作出努力来让明天更好。除了使用vegan皮革和天然材料，他们还和ONE TREE PLANTED合作保护森林，每卖出一双鞋就种一棵树。
Their shoes ROCHA GLAM, for example, are completely vegan with padded insole (removable), natural cork footbed, and water-based adhesive. You can have a look of all the products on their website.
以ROCHA GLAM为例，鞋垫全vegan，黄柏树鞋底，水基粘合剂。可以去他们网站上看看。
6. Beyond Skin
Designed in England but ethically handcrafted in Spain using luxury Italian fabrics, the company is PETA approved vegan brand. Besides their effort to reduce carbon footprint, each season, they strive to be the most eco-friendly they can be. Their synthetic leathers are made from cotton-backed polyurethane (PU) sourced from Italy. PU looks a lot like PVC leatherette, but unlike PVC it is much kinder to the environment. Although they know that PU is made from petrochemicals, turning animal hides into leather is a much more energy-intensive and polluting practice. Although not an ideal alternative environmentally, Beyond Skin feels that PU is the less of two evils and continuously researches new sustainable materials.
这个PETA批准的vegan品牌是在英国完成设计，在西班牙手工制作，并用意大利的高档材料。他们不但在降低碳足迹，而且还做到每一季越来越环保。他们的合成皮革是用棉花加工的聚氨酯做的。聚氨酯和聚氯乙烯看起来相似，但更加环保。虽然还是用石油提取物做成，但聚氨酯比用动物皮毛能耗和污染更少，所以两害相较取其轻啦。
For having an idea of their products, their MEDUSA SNAKE-EFFECT HIGH VEGAN BOOTS are hand-crafted from luxurious snake effect faux leather and made with 100% recycled faux leather lining.
给大家展示一下这款MEDUSA SNAKE-EFFECT HIGH VEGAN BOOTS，手工制作，蛇皮效果的假皮革，回收的假皮打边。
7. NAE
Nae (No Animal Exploitation) is a Portuguese vegan footwear brand. It proposes a fair and animal-friendly alternative against human exploitation and respect for the environment. The company uses mainly pineapple leaf fibers (Piñatex), organic cotton, cork, recycled PET, vegan leather that is made from a mix of microfibers including a mix of cotton, polyester, and nylon (which is recycled whenever possible) for their lines.
NAE（“没有滥用动物”的简写）是来自葡萄牙的vegan品牌。他们的目标是公平，动物友好，反对滥用和对环境不尊重。他们主要用菠萝叶子纤维（Piñatex），有机棉花，黄柏树纤维，回收的PET，和用棉花，聚酯纤维，尼龙等微纤维做成的皮革。
Their MARGOT, the women's mid-heel sandals, are in Piñatex, with ankle and toe straps in natural cork. The company offers free shipping and returns worldwide .
MARGOT，一款女式中跟鞋，用菠萝叶纤维做成，带子用黄柏纤维做成。另外这个品牌全世界包邮而且免费退货哦。
What about us?
所以呢？
What we have learnt from these different companies is their struggle to continuously minimize their impact on the environment and be kind to animals and land. They perfectly know that the road is still long but they keep going faster to find solutions. The next step is on us, as consumers we can start to be more selective when we buy, being more careful about the materials used and the story behind the product.
我们发现这些品牌的共性是不断的降低其对环境的影响，同时对动物和土地充满爱心。他们意识到路还很长，但是这激励他们走的更快。所以我们也要尽到做消费者的义务，买之前多了解一下产品的用料和其背后的理念。