A new sandal-making process harvests the waste of one shoe and makes it into another.
Flecks of color dot the outsole of a new sandal from KEEN. The flip-flop provides a visual cue of its making, revealing recycled material that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill.
Instead of throwing it out, the Portland-based footwear brand grinds used rubber and foam and adds it into a slurry. Out the other end, at a factory KEEN owns in Leon, Mexico, come the most environmentally responsible flip-flops KEEN has made.
KEEN Harvest Flip: A New Kind of Eco Flip-Flop
It might stand as the most eco-friendly sandal on the entire market. The Harvest Flip has webbing woven from used plastic bottles, a midsole made partially with recycled polyurethane, and a footbed with an anti-odor treatment that uses probiotics instead of pesticides.
[jwplayer id=qflqDYhk]
I got a firsthand look at the sandal a few months ago at KEEN’s headquarters. The company gave me a tour while I was in town, and the Harvest Flip was among multiple products coming to the market with sustainability as a primary goal.
The company notes the Harvest Flip is a “commitment to conscious design,” and that it was launched as part of an effort to implement a “more circular” manufacturing process. That means more recycled materials, utilization of waste pieces from factory floors, and other processes that aim to make manufacturing sustainable.
Recycled Rubber, Handmade Design
