sustainable shoe Brands

Since most well-established global shoe brands have just started to clean up their act by producing a line of “sustainable” shoes (which tends to make up only a small fraction of their entire annual production), we thought it would be appropriate to reference and shine a light on the new wave of small independent brands that have built sustainable practices from the ground up and across their entire production line.

We therefore published a list of about fifty purposeful shoe brands when we first launched our website back in 2016, and in just a few years the list has quadrupled.

In line with the surge in sustainable shoe start-ups, we witnessed the expansion in sustainable practices variants across different footwear types/ categories. The increased market size and complexity is what led us to decide to upgrade our list to a directory with added search functionalities to help consumers navigate through this new highly complex global commerce.

Making a choice according to sustainability standards alone can be deeply puzzling and seem like a whole added dimension to the long list of considerations we are more familiar with like aesthetics, price, functionality, fitting, comfort, performance, reviews, etc.

If your shoe brand has built sustainable practices from the ground up and across your entire collection, you are welcome to submit your entry by filling-in this form.

Whist we are building the new brand directory, you can find other ways of searching for sustainable shoe brands here.

We also highlighted some brands and designers as “case studies” under our SUSTAINABLE SHOE DESIGN STRATEGIES section, if you are interested in a specific practice like upcycled/ repurposed pre-loved shoes, or plastic-free sneakers for instance. Alternatively, if you are interested in shoes that are made from a particular material, you may find relevant brands listed in our BETTER MATERIALS section.