In 2023, a new comfortable, easy-to-wear shoe made from intriguing sustainable materials hit the market. Juntos — which come in slip-on and lace-up styles for men and women — feature an alpaca fleece upper, sock liner and insole; coconut insole; banana tree lining and a sugarcane midsole.
The Huacaya Alpaca fleece is sustainably sourced from the Mazar Wildlife Reserve in the Ecuadorian highlands, providing a cozy, moisture-wicking and temperature-regulating footwear experience, meant to be worn without socks. The sustainable shoes retail for $95 and currently come in three colors per style.
Juntos, which means “together” in Spanish, are inspired by the beloved lace-up canvas Ecuadorian street shoe, “el zapato de lona,” reimagined with sustainable materials found in abundance in Ecuador. Each shoe purchased provides a backpack full of education supplies to a child in need in Ecuador. When Juntos co-founder Mauricio Laniado, who is Ecuadorian, wore his “zapato de lonas” back home in Miami as a teenager, people noticed. Now he’s sharing his version of them with the world, with caring for the planet top of mind.
FN caught up with Laniado to learn more about his exciting new shoes and what’s in store for them in the new year.
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“One thing we’ve learned is that in this highly capital-intensive business, we’re really competing against time, not other brands. With the right resources, persistence, and patience, we can get the foothold we need to be successful,” Laniado told us exclusively over email.
“We have quietly soft-launched with no advertisement dollars invested yet. The focus has been in developing a stellar brand art direction and stellar product. Amongst it all, we’ve received orders from impact investors, renowned designers to professional fútbol players. Some really exciting times are ahead of us as we plan to continue to build up our brand which represents authenticity and culture.”
As Juntos continues to grow and impact the marketplace, its team is already thinking about how they can create an even more sustainable product; one that can fully biodegrade in nine months if buried in the ground.
“Our product and its composition are the most important aspect to our brand, and we are working with some really exciting new footwear tech. The idea is to be 100 percent compostable, also known as biodegradable. We’ve been researching and working alongside scientists from Bolt Threads, Al Genesis Materials and Recircled for solutions and directions to take through the product life cycle. Juntos leadership strongly believes by 2025, Juntos will have developed a fully composable shoe.”
Key to Juntos’ environmentally responsible and comfortable design is alpaca fleece. According to their website, alpacas are low-impact ranch animals — their hooveless feet don’t harm the arid land they live on, and their grazing method keeps grass roots in place.
“We are very serious about sourcing sustainable, ethically made materials. One of the most important ones is our alpaca wool, which all comes from one family-owned ranch high in the Andes of Ecuador. Only three percent of the 4,000-acre property is used for alpaca farming, and the rest is a private nature preserve. The owner is now a partner in our company, and the hacienda is open to visitors, so adventurous customers can actually go see exactly where the wool in their shoes comes from.”
It can seem like a new sneaker brand or competitor product offering pops up nearly every day, but smaller and newer brands, such as Hoka, have made large waves in the crowded sea of kicks. Juntos is hoping to have a big impact on the industry and planet.
“The shoe industry is dominated by giant global corporations, and it’s extremely difficult to understand how it all works, let alone get a foot in the door. There were many moments when barriers to entry were just too high, and we needed more resources to overcome them. Most people would stop when those kinds of obstacles arise, but we saw them as an opportunity to learn and grow,” Laniado reflects.
“Rothy’s is a great story and example of perseverance and patience. Rothy’s was founded in 2012, but it took 4 to 5 years for them to become profitable and successful at selling shoes. They also vertically integrated their business early on, and they built strategic partnerships that helped them navigate the space.”
Juntos also took root in 2012, when Laniado met product designer Andrew Tupper in New York City. “We didn’t want to make just another shoe. This was 2012, and fast fashion had been accelerating for over a decade already. We weren’t interested in becoming part of an industry that consumed precious resources, exploited people, and destroyed the planet,” Laniado reflects. “We wanted to create a brand that would be a force for good in the world; and that’s when Juntos was born.”
