We’re happy to see so many wearable and fashionable eco friendly shoes popping up all over the place, especially these zany and unique ones. Featuring shoes made from recyclable waste, shoes that can bloom into gorgeous flowers once you no longer want to wear them, and even shoes that turn into a tent (above image!), our top 5 quirky and cool eco shoes are getting off on the right foot when it comes to innovative design.

OAT Shoes That Bloom

These supersleek and comfortable sneakers are completely biodegradable, from the hemp and organic cotton used in the uppers to the plant-based plastics that break down completely within 6 months. OAT shoes carry a sheet of paper infused with a wildflower mix in the tongue of the sneaker, meaning that you can bury the shoes once they wear out and watch them bloom into gorgeous blossoms of Snapdragons, Daisies, Black-eyed Susans, and Sweet Alyssum!

Walking Shelter by Sibling

These super quirky but unusually useful shoes essentially act as a human shelter stored within a pair of sneakers. A pink tent emerges from the net pockets at the back of the shoe, expanding to form and enclosure that relies on the wearer for support instead of tent stakes. Bizarre but cool, these sneakers are perfect if you’re stuck in the rain—maybe they just need some eye-holes!

Images: OATShoes, All Black,Hetty Rose, Afterheels, Sibling

Related on EcoSalon:

 3 Fab New Eco-Friendly Shoe Collections: Filling the Footwear Gap

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The post Crazy Innovative Design: 5 Quirky and Cool Eco Friendly Shoes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Eco-friendly, ethically produced and extremely stylish shoes are no longer what sustainable fashionistas need to dream of. These three fabulous and fiery shoe designers are creating responsibly made shoes in red-hot designs that rival those found on the catwalks of Paris and NYC. Each of these eco-friendly shoe lines features sustainable, high quality, handmade shoes that that are taking more than one step in the right direction.

Nicora Johns

Nicora Johns is a California-based, made in the USA, shoe label that was founded by shoemaker Stephanie Fryslie. Her current Kickstarter campaign features the debut collection of Nicora Johns footwear, all of which is handcrafted in the US through environmentally sound production practices. The label is a true advocate for bringing back the lost American craft of artisan shoemaking, and hopes to create jobs for the current and future US shoe industry. All of the materials used in Nicora Johns shoes are man-made leathers and suedes that are sustainably produced and locally sourced. Check out the super cute flats, heels and boots in affordable prices and support their Kickstarter campaign before it ends!

Krže Studio

Founded in 2012, this Los Angeles-based design studio specializes in creating stunning footwear and accessories from handsome and sustainable materials. For designer Leila Tamar Kerze, this means making shoes that are entirely vegan, but just as badass as their animal-origin counterparts.

After shoe designing stints at BCBG Max Azria, Donald J Pliner, in Italy and Spain, Leila decided to take craftsmanship matters into her own hands and provide the world with responsibly made but uber stylish heels, boots and handbags. This was realized through Krže Studio’s debut collection (available in Fall 2013) which features high-quality synthetic leathers that are actually stronger than authentic leather, but have the same texture and appearance. The collection is contemporary, fashion forward and totally hot – perfect for pairing with this Fall’s top eco fashion outfits. Check out the debut collection and you’ll be sure to set your sights on a favorite pair.

Bhava

Bhava is the brainchild of designers Francisca Pineda and Rushali A. Sanghani, whose collaboration came to life through the mutual desire to create footwear that is as in tune with our environment as our spirit. This resulted in a collection of timelessly elegant and charming flats, boots and sandals that are made from the highest quality hand-woven, organic, recycled and cruelty free materials.

Francisca works from New York managing a design team that works closely with Rushali’s Mumbai atelier, where both traditional and modern handcrafting techniques are employed. Bhava is setting a new standard for sustainable footwear production, offering gorgeous, well-made and versatile shoes that build sustainable infrastructures, improve working conditions and promote complete transparency.

Images: Nicora Johns, Krže Studio, Bhava

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The post 3 Fab New Eco-Friendly Shoe Collections: Filling the Footwear Gap appeared first on EcoSalon.

Has Melissa earned its eco-friendly reputation?

In the sustainable fashion world, Brazilian shoe brand Melissa has attracted a cult following among women searching for shoes that are stylish, comfortable, and eco-friendly. Not since the jelly shoe craze of the 1980s have shoe fiends embraced PVC footwear with such gusto.

According to its vendors and fans, Melissa shoes are non-toxic, hypo-allergenic, cruelty-free, and vegan. However, little official information exists to back up Melissa’s environmental claims. Does Melissa deserve its eco-friendly reputation?

An investigation into Melissa shoes is actually an investigation into Grendene, the brand’s Brazilian parent company and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of injection-molded plastic footwear. Grendene’s brands include Ipanema, Rider, Grendha, and Melissa, and its thirteen factories employ approximately 20,000 people. The Melissa brand is guided by research-and-development lead Edson Matsuo, and much of its success has come from high-profile collaborations with designers, architects, and celebrities like Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Zaha Hadid, and Gisele Bunchen.

The Good

According to the company’s 2006 annual report, sustainability and innovation are at the heart of Grendene’s operations.

More than a concept, sustainable design is everyday experience instilled into the company’s DNA. Based on the Business-Society-Environment triad, the purpose is to create synergy that all parts of this triad can benefit from.

Grendene states that 99 percent of its industrial residues are recycled, and that other waste is reprocessed, recycled, or disposed of responsibly. According to the report, the company adopts a closed circuit approach to water use, and it has its own onsite sewage treatment systems.

One major way that Grendene embraces sustainability is through its mono-material injection-molding manufacturing process, which results in shoes that are easy to disassemble and recycle. Some Melissa stores host events where customers can bring back old shoes to trade in and recycle.

The Bad

Melissa shoes are made from Melflex, a particular type of PVC which was developed and patented by Grendene. Grendene states that the technology it employs for PVC development is “the most sustainable and ecologically correct in the world market.” But is PVC necessarily a sustainable material?

The opinion is split. Environmental groups like Greenpeace argue that PVC is the most environmentally damaging of all plastics. According to the group, toxic chlorine-based chemicals are released at every stage of PVC’s production, use, and disposal, resulting in health problems like cancer, immune system damage, and hormone disruption. A report from the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University expands on these claims:

PVC poses hazards to human health over the course of its life cycle. PVC production exposes workers and communities to vinyl chloride and other toxic substances. PVC products such as medical equipment and children’s toys can leach toxic additives during their useful life. Vinyl building materials release hydrochloric acid fumes if they catch fire, and burning PVC creates byproducts including dioxin, a potent carcinogen.

Melissa’s website, on the other hand, claims that PVC is “one of the most sustainable thermoplastics available” and that Melflex is “versatile, durable, totally reusable and extremely environmentally friendly.” Grendene’s annual report states that “when disposed of, (PVC shoes) can be entirely recycled, burned for recovery of energy, or even sent to landfills, since they do not contaminate the soils or water tables.”

However, neither Melissa nor Grendene provide any specific information proving that its PVC is less harmful than the types of PVC attacked by environmental groups.

The Questionable 

While Melissa shoes may be cruelty-free and recyclable, they are still made from a material that is synthetic, controversial, and reportedly harmful to the environment. Grendene may claim that its PVC is eco-friendly, but without a public body of evidence, it’s impossible to evaluate if the claim is true or not.

In my opinion, the greatest sustainability element of Melissa shoes is their ability to… well, sustain. EcoSalon’s Editor-in-Chief raves that she has had her Melissas for years, yet they still look like new and retain their distinct bubblegum scent (which we’re guessing doesn’t come from nature). Another friend and EcoSalon contributor has worn her Melissas through nearly a decade of international work and travel.

Melissas are built to last, which is sustainable because it prevents the need for additional shoe purchases. But as for the eco-friendliness of their product lifecycle? Until Melissa and Grendene release more information, we can’t know for sure.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: TOMS’ One for One Campaign

Behind the Label: Puma’s Vision and Clever Little Bag

Behind the Label: Timberland’s CSR After the VF Merger

Read more Behind the Label here.

The post Behind The Label: The Sustainability Claims Behind Melissa Shoes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Exploring the relationship between corporate mergers and corporate social responsibility.

Timberland’s mission is unique for a shoe company: “to equip people to make a difference in their world.”

Then again, Timberland isn’t your average shoe company. For more than a decade, Timberland has been at the forefront of the corporate social responsibility space, showing the industry that it’s possible for a mainstream brand to operate sustainably without sacrificing profits. “It’s no longer enough to measure business by standards of profit, efficiency and market share,” wrote CEO Jeffrey Schwartz in the company’s first CSR report, published in 2000. “We must also ask how business contributes to social justice, environmental sustainability and the values by which we choose to live.”

On the surface, it seemed that Timberland was successful in achieving that balance, which is why many were surprised when the company announced in 2011 that it was being acquired by VF Corporation, one of the world’s largest lifestyle and apparel conglomerates.

With a portfolio of more than 30 brands including The North Face, Vans, Reef, Nautica, Jansport, Kipling, and 7 For All Mankind, VF seems perfectly positioned to expand the Timberland brand. But as Timberland itself admits, “there’s much more involved than simply adding up the two balance sheets.” This week’s Behind the Label explores the Timberland-VF merger and its implications for Timberland’s social responsibility efforts.

The Good

Timberland’s story dates back to 1952, when shoemaker Nathan Schwartz purchased shares of the Abington Shoe Company, a small manufacturer based out of Abington, Massachusetts. The company mostly focused on contract manufacturing until 1973, when it launched its first guaranteed water-proof boot under the Timberland brand name. Through the second part of the 20th century, Timberland was run as a family business, first by Nathan, and then later by his son Sidney and grandson Jeffrey.

With Jeffrey at the helm, Timberland became a pioneer in corporate social responsibility in the 1990s, with comprehensive reports and ambitious goals that raised the industry bar. Thankfully, it appears that Timberland is adequately equipped with the tools, structure, and leadership to continue working toward its sustainability goals under the VF umbrella.

One tool that will be invaluable is Timberland’s new online responsibility portal, hailed as a breakthrough in corporate transparency upon its launch in 2011. The portal is broken into sections exploring Climate, Product, Factories, and Service, providing status updates as well as hard graphs and data on the company’s progress in areas like carbon emissions, eco-conscious materials, factory conditions, employee engagement in service activities, and even number of trees planted.

For those who don’t wish or aren’t equipped to sift through the data, Timberland also releases a quarterly newsletter that provides summaries of its efforts, as well as podcasts, blog posts, and a section called “Voices of Challenge,” which brings together CSR professionals to discuss issues around sustainability.

“People can go granular as they want or stay as generalist as they’d like,” Mark Newton, Timberland’s Vice President of CSR, told Forbes. “What’s different about the portal is that we are not starting conversations by discussing one of our pillars or metrics but focusing on stories that matter and then getting to the things that are underneath those stories.”

The portal also includes an interactive scorecard that allows stakeholders to view Timberland’s progress toward its CSR goals for 2015. The scorecard reveals the good, including greater use of environmentally preferred materials and growth of the company’s eco-friendly Earthkeepers line, and the bad, like a 4.5% increase in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010 to 2011 (which Timberland recognizes as a function of increased growth and employee air travel).

The Bad

During the acquisition process, VF Corporation has indicated a desire to continue working toward Timberland’s sustainability goals. “Regardless of what happens post-merger, we are all in this together,” Newton told Forbes. “Our values are integrated into all of us and everyone who works here.”

However, certain public comments and actions indicate that the transition process may have a larger impact on Timberland’s CSR efforts than leadership lets on. For one, it’s a given that VF’s multinational corporate interests will differ somewhat from Timberland’s triple bottom line approach. In a New York Times Dealbook article published at the start of the merger, it appeared that VF’s approach to the acquisition was primarily profit-driven.

VF executives appeared confident that it could wring profits by improving Timberland’s business performance, primarily by folding it into the apparel giant’s global platform and cutting costs. On an investor call with analysts, VF’s chief financial officer, Bob Shearer, said his company planned to raise its new acquisition’s operating margin to 15 percent, in line with the rest of the conglomerate’s brands.

Part of this “folding in” is the replacement of Timberland’s long-standing, well-respected, and notoriously strict factory Code of Conduct with VF’s Terms of Engagement and Global Compliance Principles, the same principles in place across all 30 of the company’s brands. According to Timberland, this will allow for a two-step approach to factory compliance: factory inspections and audits by the VF team, followed by remediation, training, and “beyond compliance” efforts from Timberland’s Supplier Sustainability Team. The success of this new approach is yet to be seen, but one has to wonder how continued “cost-cutting measures” will impact the socially responsible supply chain that Timberland already has in place.

The Questionable

Before the merger, Timberland was on oft-cited example of a homegrown family business that successfully grew into a mainstream brand, without sacrificing its commitment to sustainable business practices. However, comments from Schwartz before his departure from the company revealed that the endeavor was far from simple:

For three generations, we’ve tried to create and master a weird new kind of modern dance—the one that blends the foxtrot of “fiduciary responsibility to shareholders” with the tango of “authentic brand building,” with the Alvin Ailey contortion of “sustainable for profit business practice” … For 30 years, we’ve been trying, fighting, struggling, to choreograph the intricate interaction between shareholder value, consumer demand, and social accountability. I have the scars, and the long list of failed efforts, incomplete outcomes, unrealized dreams and frustrated ambitions before my eyes all the time that reflect this passionate effort. 

By several accounts, it seems that Timberland’s troubles lay in its ability to scale its operations so as to continue operating sustainably while maintaining its responsibility to shareholders as a publicly traded company. The best option, it seems, was to align itself with a larger conglomerate, like the VF Corporation, that would be able to shepherd the company to the next level. In a research memo from Sterne Agee cited in Dealbook, analysts said that they “regard Timberland as a high-quality brand that has been operationally challenged for a number of years,” and that “VF has exhibited a strong track record and the capabilities to rectify many of the historical problems.”

Judging from his heartfelt farewell blog post, Schwartz seemed to agree with that analysis. He also seemed confident that he was leaving Timberland in the right hands, and that VF Corporation would be able to grow Timberland without abandoning the social responsibility that was central to its mission.

To illustrate his confidence, Schwartz shared a story from an employee town hall meeting that took place during the changing of hands.

An environmental activist in our ranks rose, way in the back, to ask the new guy, the Boss to Be, about sustainability.

“Tell us, please, why sustainability is important to you.”

Wow. That is town hall democracy the way Rockwell painted it. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide — respectful, but a “no quarter granted” question.

And the man with whom I negotiated hard and long for the best possible deal for shareholders stood his ground, and answered, authentically and naturally. “The answer is simple—we believe that sustainability is good for the business and good for the world environmentally.”

… In this poignant moment of transition, from a business run by my family for three generations to a business to be run by relative strangers – here is the CEO of a 10B$ powerhouse, talking about sustainability simply and easily — good for business, good for the earth. And he means what he says. 

Corporate acquisitions of sustainable brands tend to instinctually make me cringe. But in some cases, I have to wonder if they can actually be a positive thing, not only for the companies in question but also for the industry as a whole.

Although he’s no longer at the helm of Timberland, Schwartz certainly seems hopeful that this corporate undertaking is a step in the right direction.

It strikes me, hard, as I sit there — 30 years later, a vitally important conversation has shifted … Used to be, “what in the world does for-profit business have to do with social issues? That’s the purview of the government or the church.” And yet here, and now — I hear this powerful leader telling my colleagues, announcing to the whole damn world, that the question is not “if” corporations should be involved in questions of sustainability — not “if,” only “how.”  Thirty years later–the corporate conversation turns from “if” to “how.” 

SEE ALSO:

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Behind the Label: Levi Strauss’ E-Valuate Program

Behind the Label: TOMS’ One for One Campaign

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Behind the Label: Anthropologie’s Made In Kind

Behind the Label: Is Stella McCartney A Sustainable Brand?

Behind the Label: Tommy Hilfiger’s Promise Collection

Behind the Label: Alternative Apparel

Read more Behind the Label here.

The post Behind The Label: Timberland’s CSR After the VF Merger appeared first on EcoSalon.

A list of the current, top sustainable shoe designers.

Beyond Skin, Brighton, U.K.: Ethical, organic, vegan and vegetarian. Made in Alicante, Spain.

Bourgeois Boheme, London, U.K.: Animal-friendly, vegan, ethically sourced faux leather and natural materials.

Calleen Cordero, Los Angeles, CA: Handmade by artisans, vegetable-tanned leather.

Cholesburys, England:Hand made in England, over 60% of components are recycled or up cycled, low Co2 production and new leather (the sandal insole) is vegetable tanned.

Coclico, New York, NY: Vegetable-tanned leather, ethically made by artisans in Spain.

Cri de Coeur, New York, NY: Vegan, recycled plastics, biodegradable low-VOC eco-PU, organic cotton, hemp, reclaimed wood, ethically made.

Earth Sandals, Waltham, MA: “The original wellness shoe.”

ECCO, Denmark: Innovative materials, devoted to sustainable manufacturing.

Elizabeth Katzman, Detroit, MI: Cruelty-free, vegan, member of 1% For the Planet, donated portion of sales to animal-rights organizations.

El Naturalista, Spain: Made by artisans, vegetable tanned leather, recycled and natural rubber outsoles, recycled insoles, manufactured following a strict Eco-Policy.

Form & Fauna, Mill Valley, CA: Biodegradable synthetic, organic cotton, hemp, vintage fabrics, scrap wood heels, water-based glues, handcrafted in the USA.

Kailia, Italy/United States: Vegetarian, cruelty-free, water-based glues, polyurethane soles, vegetable-dyed linings, organic linen/cotton, recycled materials, handmade in small European family owned factories.

Love is Mighty, New York, NY: Vegan, crafted by indigenous artisans.

Melissa, Brazil: Designer collaborations, natural, recyclable plastic, socially and environmentally responsible company.

Mohop, Chicago, Illinois: Made in the USA, sustainably sourced woods and components.

Naya, St. Louis: Vegetable-tanned leathers and linings, natural or recycled content fabrics, water-based cements, boxes made with 80% recycled paper pulp, soy-based inks and water-based glue.

Neuaura, Manhattan, NY: Made from quality and, whenever possible, sustainable materials. In addition, a portion of Neuaura’s production is made at a sustainable factory in Brazil and every year the brand donates 5% of their annual net proceeds to charities that preserve and protect the environment.

Nina Z, New York, NY: Uses wood grown according to EU standards so that every step taken supports forest regeneration, tanned hides harvested from European cows raised according to the strictest EU standards, rubber soles made from recycled rubber.

Novacas, New York: Animal-friendly, environmentally-friendly, and worker-friendly products, 100% PVC-free, ethically manufactured in Portugal at worker-friendly factories according to labor standards set forth by the European Union.

OAT Shoes, The Netherlands: Biodegradable, grows flowers, all-natural non-toxic materials.

Olsen Haus, New York, Miami: Vegan, recycled and natural materials.

Osborn, Brooklyn, New York: Each shoe is hand made and woven by artisans in Guatemala, recycled and natural materials.

Patagonia, Ventura, California: Vegan, recycled materials, bluesign Standard, Common Threads Initiative, Our Common Water Campaign

Rachel Comey, New York, NY: Ethically hand-made in Peru.

Swedish Hasbeens, Sweden: Made with sustainable materials like vegetable tanned chrome-free leathers, natural rubber soles and real cork.

Terraplana, New York, NY: Made from environmentally sustainable materials like recycled rubber, vegetable tanned leathers, and recycled fabrics, artisan techniques fused with modern technology.

Did we miss someone? Email amy@ecosalon.com with your tip!

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Top Image: Calleen Cordero

The post The Ultimate List of Sustainable Shoe Designers (From A-Z) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Martha Davis sustainable shoe line rethinks the future of shoes.

As an industrial product and shoe designer with a 15 year career span, Martha Davis is adept at problem solving. The brief for her residency at San Francisco’s Workshop Residence, a San Francisco-based sustainability incubator for artists and designers, was to create a line of shoes from local resources that weren’t being utilized.

A large order for Fab.com is being packed into boxes at the Dogpatch district Workshop on a warm morning in July, the uniquely beautiful, made-to-last shoes inside are a testament both to the success of Davis’ mission, and to the evolution of a design principal that perfectly illustrates by limiting precious resources.

Already the creator of a successful and highly-coveted shoe line that produced 15 shoe styles per season, Davis took the opportunity of her two-month residency to reconsider the process of making shoes. Having studied the technical aspects of shoe design at the renowned Ars Sutoria Institute in Milan – unlike most designers in the field who rely on sketching- Davis was able to take the ingredients of shoe construction – calculating fit points, making wooden lasts and patterns – and re-imagine a recipe for forward-thinking footwear.

The remarkable results are a collection of three different types of shoes designed, “for the woman interested in challenging convention and taking risks,” describes Davis. Each shoe comes with its own sustainable story.

The Kasha shoe features a heel with colored resin heel and redwood.

The Kasha features a resin heel with two different types of heel, a high and a low version. The style is made from reclaimed wood from a 50 foot piece of old growth redwood that was salvaged from a wildfire. Ordinarily cut off and burnt for biomass, the section was too small for lumber merchants to use. To make it into a 3” heel, Davis created a mold, then poured polyurethane resin that was tinted red, turquoise and black in the workshop. The creative result, “celebrates its inherent characteristics and leaves it in its natural state,” says Davis. “Natural material is inherently very irregular. When you choose to work with it you have to hand select every piece.”

High heel Simone shoe featuring a wedge of black acacia with golden details and a brass plate.

The Simone style features a wood heel made from the round of locally growing acacia and a unique heat-treated spring steel shank that runs the length of the arch. Uncomfortable with typically short shanks that tend to twist and compromise the durability of regular high heels, Davis designed and specially commissioned the shank by a local machine shop that makes car parts.

Adjustable-heel Sugi shoe made with repurposed Douglas fir

The innovative Sugi, which includes a revolutionary adjustable heel height – delighting every woman who has ever wanted to discard her uncomfortable high heels midway thru a night out – were made from repurposed Douglas Fern brake stops used by a Workshop neighbor –  of the iconic cable cars of San Francisco’s Muni system. The stylish shoes feature high quality leather sourced from a Napa-based hide house that is vegetable tanned.

“I found local material easy to find and fairly readily available, the challenge was finding local resources willing to work with it because it was unusual,” said Davis. Once on board, the symbiotic partnerships with local business owners informed Davis’ discovery of the coincidental nature of working within limited resources – you don’t need to force the process, the best collaborations often happen naturally.

The collection, which also features a line of belts is now available online on the Workshop’s recently launched online store. So take a look at the future of shoe design, we promise you might never look at your shoes the same again.

The post Martha Davis Takes A Step In the Right Direction appeared first on EcoSalon.

                                                                                     

The latest Jeffrey Campbell For Convert collection is going fast.

Hands up. Who has a closet full of eco-friendly-made shoes? I thought not. While the days of design-lacking green clothing are most definitely over, it remains hard to find stylish, sustainable shoes. “Shoes are the worst eco offenders; it’s the way they are made,” says Randy Brewer, owner of Berkeley’s Convert store. It’s no surprise that his first vegan- and earth-friendly collection with LA-based cult shoe designer, Jeffrey Campbell, a long-standing pal, proved such a hit this past spring.

“Out of all the lines I carry, these are the store’s best sellers,” he reports, “I’ve had calls from all over the world for them. Everyone is really looking for hot vegan and sustainable shoes right now.” Brewer is used to being at the forefront of a new trend. His innovative store dedicated to both style and sustainability on Berkeley’s Fourth Street was the first Bay area store to carry hard-to-find men’s apparel, plus a good mix of women’s sustainable and local labels. As the second collection of Jeffrey Campbell’s shoes begin to hit the store in time for fall, the charismatic Mr. Brewer is busy preparing for the rush.

The “Mention” slipper in Python, also available in quilted pewter.

Once again, the new collection is made leather-free using dead stock materials and non-animal based glues. Alongside the “runway” platforms and flatforms are options for those who are seeking an “eco” aesthetic in their everyday shoes. Mr. Brewer is a fan of the “Mention” slipper, “it’s timeless, it’s ageless really, “ he reports. “Anyone can wear this. It’s been a big hit with older and younger customers. The shoe comes in new color ways and fabrications. “The quilted is a little more traditional, the python is so right now, it looks good with black and a lot of our customers wear all black ensembles, we’ve noticed.”

Borrowed from the boys, the best selling “Prospect”brogue.

The two tone “Prospect,” an eye catching and seasonless borrowed-from-the-boys style (similar styles were seen on models at Balenciaga and Jil Sander’s spring runways), was re-issued for the latest collection, as it proved to be a big hit the first time around.

If you’re not yet scrolling through these photos deciding which style will be yours, here’s something else you should know about the new line, “They’re comfortable too,” shares Brewer, echoing a well-known secret among Jeffrey Campbell shoe lovers. “They took out the leather interiors and replaced it with canvas,” says Brewer, improving both its green credentials and its summer comfort, “It’s not so sweaty.”

Platform Power, the “99 Tie” in sustainable raffia.

The Jeffrey Campbell for Convert collection retails from $104-$159 and is only available at Convert in Berkeley.

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