Plant-based Shoes

What happens to the leftover coffee beans from your morning coffee? Like most coffee waste, it probably ends up in landfills and as it breaks down, poses harm to the wildlife both on land and in the sea. According to 2016 estimates, around 3,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds were produced in the City of Sydney in a single year (Noone, 2020). What about a solution? What if coffee bean waste could be used for good?

Introducing Sage Footwear x Jiwa Group collaboration launched on August 27, 2021. This limited-edition collection used coffee grounds wastes to dye the cloth canvas of each shoe. The shoe canvas itself is cotton twill from recycled garments, giving left-over fabric a second life. Sage CloudStepTech Foam with a mixture of recycled rubber becomes a unique insole texture for added comfort. An initial release of 250 shoes sold out in just one minute!

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Sage Footwear has worked with numerous sustainable Indonesian brands to launch exclusive products to the community. For example, another iconic collaboration was with Indonesian tea company ‘Teh Botol Sosro’ which used tea-leaf dreg dyeing and the 1000 pairs of shoes were sold out in just 3 hours! With a sole focus on providing “quality, sustainability and originality”, their collections have continued to be positively received by sneaker enthusiasts.

Every collaboration has focused on giving back to the community through two main ways:

Donations towards school construction in Eastern Indonesia
For every 10 pairs of shoes sold, one pair of shoes is given to someone without proper shoes

Their main product selection also integrates recycled cotton and recycled rubber into their shoe design. By using recycled cotton for each pair of Sage Footwear shoes, they save 2000L of water. To put that into perspective, for 250 shoes of their Jiwa Group collection, that’s 500,000L of water saved! With research and development at the forefront of their eco-friendly design, Sage Footwear are committed to “Melangkah Ke Segala Arah” (Steps in all directions) for the good of the environment.

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NODE sandals and slip-on bio sneakers

Another stand-out sustainable shoe company based in Indonesia is NODE. Short for “No DEforestation”, NODE produces vegan sandals and footwear to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle to their community. They believe that “everything grown from soil must decompose in soil”, thus they develop their products to be in harmony with nature.

To do so, they sell limited amounts of products and put their funds towards further research into sustainable resources and product design. Their main sandal design also takes inspiration from footwear used by Indonesian ancestors. Through modern interpretation of ancient philosophy, NODE designs slim-fit sandals with a soft for everyday comfort.

Compared to normal shoes, NODE sandals will break down into the land without letting out harmful toxins and in fact, promote environmental development. NODE has achieved this by engineering their product materials to be both biodegradable and packed full of nutrients for improving plant growth. By utilising bio-sources that can support urban farming, NODE makes use of Indonesia’s strength as an agricultural powerhouse and empowers local community farmers. NODE hopes to be a small part of making our planet a sustainable and colourful place to live.

Checkout https://www.nodeorganic.com/ and https://sagefootwear.com/ for more about stylish sustainable footwear

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