Could drinking wine be good for your feet? Sort of, says one sandal brand focused on sustainability.
Footwear brand Sole has released sandals with insoles made from 100 percent recycled wine corks. A spokesperson for the label said the recently released shoes as “launching a new era in footwear innovation.”
The new styles, dubbed the Beach Flips and the Casual Flips, are part of a four-piece footwear collection. The two styles pull from the brand’s recycling program, aptly named ReCork.
“By using recycled natural wine corks in our footwear, we are eliminating the usage of other harmful materials used otherwise in the production of footwear,” said Mike Baker, CEO and founder of Sole and ReCork.
A spokesperson for Sole explained that the brand’s move comes as a part of its vision to “pioneer a closed-loop manufacturing process by reusing natural wine corks.” The spokesperson said the process is a “sustainable and renewable resource” that has been “underutilized” previously.
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The Sole spokesperson noted that ReCork is North America’s biggest cork recycling program, boasting thousands of partners. Its program has planted over 8,000 cork oak tress and collected 75 million wine corks. The result, according to the spokesperson, is a reduction in its carbon footprint “beyond carbon-neutral into carbon-negative.”
Sustainability efforts continue to take the footwear retail industry by storm, from recent behind-the-scenes process changes to front-line initiatives. Case in point: DHL Group said last year it would move to make ocean freight transports more eco-friendly.
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