Old Tires to New Shoes

Old tires, coconut, carpet padding, and cork. These are things that you would just use and then throw away once they get old or worn out. But that is not the case when it comes to this shoe company, Simple. Instead of wasting things that still can still be used in a somewhat non-conventional form, this company has found a great way to create shoes and other products that are environmentally friendly. They state on their website, “With all the over-built, over-hyped products out there, it's pretty hard to find sustainable shoes that you can live with. So we started Simple, your stereotypical, anti-stereotype brand offering good shoes and a big dose of reality.” In addition, they said, “The important thing is we're committed to making our product 100% sustainable. Finding materials and processes that make our products sustainable is a method we call Green Toe. It isn't a magic formula, or a cure. It is a compass that, we hope, points to a bright green future.” They Old car tires are used for the soles of shoes, and the coconut for buttons and accents. The carpet padding and cork are used for padding within their shoes. These are just four of the many items this company uses for their shoes.

Also what was surprising was that this company even creates shoes with college logos on them such as Cal, Stanford and Duke.

This company is taking notice of the fact that many people are now going “green” and trying to buy environmentally friendly products and clothes. This is related to the idea of “fashion as a cultural symbol,” (Kawamura, 39). In this case, the new fashion style shows how there is a new green culture. And therefore producers of fashion and designers are trying to create things in response to the new culture that is being created. Kawamura also brings up fashion in terms of it being “… an institutionalized system in which individuals related to fashion, including designers… engage in activities collectively, share the same belief in fashion and participate together in producing and perpetuating the not only the ideology but also fashion culture which is sustained by the continuous production of fashion,” (Kawamura, 39). In relation to green fashion, this shows how numerous designers and companies create products that are environmentally friendly. This particular company uses things that are re-used or organic materials in order to make shoes that more sustainable for the environment.

In relation to the compact challenge, these shoes show that the uses for things that could have been thrown away are quite great. And I do own a pair of these shoes, the green ones pictured above. (But I bought them way before the challenge began.)

-Jasmine Lim (Blog #5)

Sources:
“Fashion as a Institutionalized System” by Yuniya Kawamura in Fashion-ology
Simple Shoes Website: http://www.simpleshoes.com/info/index.aspx?g=info
Image of Simple Logo: http://www.simpleshoes.com/images/Misc/sgw/sgw_simpleLogo.gif
Image of Green Polka Dot Shoes: http://www.thegreenloop.com/Simple_Carousel_Polka_Eco_Sneaks_p/simple-ss08-ecosneak-carousel.htm
Image of Flip-Flops: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Womens-Toe-Foo-cal/dp/B001G0WP88