Consumer demand for vegan sneakers is being answered and with gleaming celebrity endorsements. There’s nothing like a dash of Billie Eilish or Kanye West to stoke the fanfare in searches. Per shopping insights platform Lyst’s September report, demand for recycled sneakers, such as algae-made Yeezy Foam RNNRs, grew 55 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish’s latest partnership with Air Jordan on a pair of vegan trainers sent searches for vegan sneakers spiking 67 percent. Searches for biodegradable sneakers were up a remarkable 348 percent, too. Gen Z icons like Jaden Smith and Billie Eilish are “hugely impactful,” according to Dominique Side, a Houston-based business owner of The Luxury Vegan, providing luxury concierge services for clients seeking to transition to vegan lifestyles. These stars are impactful “because [Gen Z] has yet to establish themselves and incorporate [veganism] into their lifestyles,” in Side’s opinion. “I feel like [the Jaden Smith collaboration] brought New Balance a whole new audience and rejuvenated their appeal.” The collection she references is the “Jaden 574,” which was released last year. The shoe uppers are made from 73 percent surplus materials (from New Balance’s scraps), 9 percent recycled content and 18 percent virgin materials, finished off with New Balance’s signature EVA foam. In recent years, athletic brands with major market share — among them Adidas, Nike, Reebok, New Balance — have shown repeat interest in animal-free leather, dropping celebrity collaborations and pouring innovation dollars into buzzy biotech companies. Side mentioned the pioneers that piqued her interest. “I’ve been following Stella McCartney’s collab with Adidas, that was one of my first introductions into fashion and into wearable items that I would entertain on a daily basis,” she shared. “It’s not hugely inaccessible, [and it] is fashionable and comfortable. [The collection] offered something different than the brand as the whole.” As she is often credited, Stella McCartney may have led the herd her way. More than 15 years ago, McCartney forged her long-term partnership with Adidas, which would pave the way for more vegan collaborations like the Parley Ultra Boost X trainers (made from ocean plastic) and the first vegan Stan Smiths (which debuted in September 2018). Adidas has been defining its stance on next-gen materials since. The brand recently one-upped those efforts by redesigning the ’70s classic this April, tapping mycelium-based Mylo, a natural material innovation derived from mushrooms courtesy of biotech company Bolt Threads. Around the same time that McCartney was hammering away on her Adidas collabs, Reebok pushed out its “Cotton + Corn” collection, which debuted in 2018. The collection was another early stroke of the mass market’s move into vegan sneakers being, at the time, the only vegan footwear product on the market with U.S. Department of Agriculture props (with 75 percent certified biobased content). In other mass moves, Piñatex (a pineapple fiber used by hundreds of brands) appeared in Nike’s “Happy Pineapple” collection roll out, which started to trickle to the mass market in June. The editions span five styles: The Free Run Trail Premium; the Air Max 90; the Air Max 95; Air Force One, and the Air-Zoom Type. Perhaps symbolic for Piñatex’s gravitas in the industry, Nike stamped pineapple graphics on the shoes’ tongues. “On one hand, sneakerheads want Jordans no matter what they’re made of….[In many instances], they did not know they were buying into this [vegan] trend, and it doesn’t matter if they did,” Side said. “If it’s a great product, then it doesn’t matter if it’s vegan or not. Why not let it be vegan? It’s still sold out.” Side argued sneakerheads, and Jordans fans, are “contributing to the demand for the vegan product without them even knowing.”

One Company’s Circular Vision, An Industry’s Gain

Technology is a quiet competency in the realm of vegan sneakers as brands strive to be compostable (Native Shoes), biodegradable (LDN Biodegradable Sneaker), and even circular (Thousand Fell). Thousand Fell is an almost fully circular shoe, meaning 70 to 80 percent of the shoe can be taken back and repurposed. A four-year-old circular shoe brand with stockists like Madewell, Thousand Fell recently nabbed Phong Nguyen, the former cofounder of both Gilt Group and Luminary, as its chief technology officer. Nguyen will manage the company’s tech stack, including its proprietary reverse logistics platform that is already banking thousands of shoes from customers for recycling into new shoes. The company also has a recent $3 million in seed funding to devote to this tech buildout. While this circular vision was ingrained from inception, partnerships forged last year with recycling company TerraCycle and package delivery firm UPS, formalized the means of realizing a closed-loop shoe. To incentivize customers’ cooperation in parting with their $120 minimal kicks that come in a dozen colorways for the sake of circular fashion, Thousand Fell customers get a $20 credit deposited into their account once packed in the pre-paid label and scanned into the system by UPS. The process is mostly digitized, giving both Thousand Fell and customers the ability to track and trace adoption and recycling throughout the full supply chain. “By driving a continued drumbeat of conversation, it keeps customers engaged. They send it back and they stay with Thousand Fell,” said cofounder Chloe Songer, on how transparency drives customer loyalty. “The more units we’re able to drive through, the more efficient our systems can be.” Where any component parts can’t be reclaimed (because recycling means are lacking) at one of the company’s many partners that dot its supply chain in New Jersey, Texas or Brazil, it is downcycled or industrially composted. “One of the biggest costs is how you collect product back one for one. Fifteen years ago, no one did that. The next 15 years are really going to be the reverse of that,” said Thousand Fell cofounder Stuart Ahlum. “This isn’t like a resale or rental platform where you’re grading sneakers that come back…What we’re trying to figure out is this equation: How does it make sense for retail businesses to do this and drive top-line revenue?” A life cycle assessment is underway, according to the company, for detailing the environmental impact of its reverse supply chain. Next year, Thousand Fell is targeting the rollout of its recycled shoe and from here on out, the company is only producing tech-enabled shoes (meaning shoes come with a handy scannable tag) for streamlined uptake.

The Downsides of New Demand

The mass appeal for vegan footwear can drive interest in the market, but it’s not just benefits all around, according to Joshua Katcher, designer of vegan footwear brand Brave GentleMan, and Alfredo Piferi, founder of the luxury vegan shoe label Piferi. In April for Fairchild Media Group’s sustainability summit, the two rattled off the tough truths in vegan footwear. They cited the limitations of scaling biobased innovations and exclusivity agreements between major brands and biotech companies that ostracize material access for smaller labels. “I think it’s encouraging that it’s becoming exciting for celebrities and big-name brands to do a vegan shoe collaboration. I think it shows that there’s an increasing demand for alternatives to leather,” Katcher said in a separate interview with WWD. “One of the problems is that a lot of the material innovators are signing exclusivity deals with major brands and celebrities, making it very difficult for smaller companies that have a sustainability mission or an ethical fashion mission, by pushing them out of the equation,” he added. “I understand why they do that, a lot of these companies are start-ups, too…but it’s a bit of a paradox.” Katcher is also on the board of directors for Collective Fashion Justice and is entrenched in fighting disinformation in the leather sector, all while clarifying the nuances in vegan materials. Quick to cite figures on leather’s outsized impact, even against synthetic, non-animal leather, Katcher believes, “We should be reducing land usage, rewilding grazeland…and moving in a direction toward materials that don’t require those things.”

TerraCycle is a company that specializes in recycling non-conventional materials, like chewing gum. It partners with businesses to reduce their waste and offers many different recycling options. There's also an option for individuals to partner with TerraCycle to recycle things like diapers. This article is part of a series called "Partners for a Sustainable Future," profiling innovative alliances that are driving real progress in sustainability. Casey Dworkin, founder of Sylven New York. Courtesy of Casey Dworkin Then in 2019, she partnered with TerraCycle, a business that specializes in recycling non-conventional materials. TerraCycle melts down waste, pelletizes it, and shapes it to be repurposed into anything from shipping pallets to park benches. "While the vast majority of recycling companies tend to concentrate on traditional waste streams like aluminum, paper, or specific types of plastic, TerraCycle has made a name for itself in recycling 'the unrecyclable,'" Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, told Insider. "This type of hard-to-recycle waste takes the form of virtually anything from cigarette butts to plastic snack packaging to used chewing gum." Here's a look at how TerraCycle helps companies like Sylven recycle their products. Recycling for businesses and products of all shapes and sizes The TerraCycle building exterior, made with recycled material. Courtesy of Terracycle TerraCycle offers different options to its partners, depending on the size and needs of the brand: Zero waste box: This is what Dworkin and many other small-business owners use. Szaky calls it a "turnkey, all-inclusive recycling solution for hundreds of typically non-recycled items, from coffee capsules to the entire contents of your bathroom."  Mail-in envelope recycling programs: These are typically for mid-sized brands with products that can fit in mailable envelope pouches. Brand-sponsored national recycling programs: This option is for large-scale businesses that have a substantial amount of products to recycle. Companies that opt for this program also receive assistance from TerraCycle with social-media engagement and press outreach designed to drive consumer awareness of the policies.  Brands interested in integrating TerraCycle into their operations work with their business development team to develop a custom program and learn what their product may be turned into. "I'm sending them one of my shoes so that they can actually analyze the different components within it and give me a breakdown of exactly how each item and how each material can be recycled," Dworkin, who used to create shoes with Italian leather but recently switched to apple leather, said. Sylven shoes are made with apple leather. TerraCycle's Tom Szaky says their recycled materials could work for playgrounds. Courtesy of Casey Dworkin Her products are likely to be converted into material placed under playgrounds. "I don't have shoes that are at the end of their product life, but my goal was to set a system in place so that when that time comes, we can be as responsible about their end life as possible," Dworkin added. TerraCycle works with third-party subcontracting facilities for processing and conversion work and a network of end users who implement the recycled material into their end-products, Skazy said. In one instance, TerraCycle partnered with Head & Shoulders to create the first recyclable shampoo bottle out of beach plastic. Individuals can recycle almost anything, from diapers to 3D materials Plastic recyclables in the TerraCycle office. Courtest of TerraCycle While TerraCycle focuses on helping businesses, they also have options for individuals looking to recycle beyond paper and plastic products. Once a person makes a TerraCycle account, they have the opportunity to send in waste by purchasing specific product boxes to ship in or utilize a local drop-off location. "I'm almost doing it on a consumer level," Dworkin said. "I'm essentially purchasing their boxes that you use for footwear specifically, and I'll be filling it and sending it to them." Pricing for these boxes range based on what a person wants to recycle. For example, boxes for 3D printing materials start at $149. Alternatively, a box for diaper and waste packaging begins at $72 for the same size. These price variations account for the cost of shipping and recycling the specific item. Individuals shopping from brands who partner with TerraCycle can return their ready-to-be-recycled products to the company they purchased from. The brand then adds it to their pre-purchased containers to send to TerraCycle.  "During the lockdown, individuals also became more conscious of the volume of waste generated by themselves and their families. People had more time to think about the products they used, the amount of waste they were producing, and viable solutions for the packaging," Szaky said. Keeping the environment top of mind In August, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change released a report stating that human influence has "unequivocally" warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.  "Now more than ever, consumers expect the brands they support to be as committed to their mission as they are to their actual products and are demanding that companies be transparent about their sustainability efforts," Szaky said. He believes that a brand partnering with TerraCycle shows its customers that they're taking actionable steps to fight climate change.  As Dworkin scales up her business, she hopes to create custom systems with TerraCycle. "Before recycling, we always promote care and repair," she said. She speaks with admiration for the steps in place for bigger shoe and apparel brands TerraCycle's partnered with, especially the analysis of each product to determine the most energy and cost-efficient methods of recycling each material. "There's a lot of opportunities for us to make custom solutions further down the road," Dworkin said. "It's super dependent on the specific materials that they're looking at. So because my materials are so specific, it'll be really cool to see exactly what solutions are possible."     

• The beauty industry produces 120 billion units of packaging per year.
• In an effort to combat this, companies have recently been doubling down on sustainable packaging.
• Below, we round up 18 beauty companies that offer reusable or recyclable packaging.
• Each year, the beauty industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging — "95% [of which] is thrown out after one use," said Yolanda Cooper, founder of skincare brand We Are Paradoxx, during a recent webinar to mark her Plastic Free Beauty Day initiative. Luckily, many brands are adopting environmentally-friendly initiatives that are already helping consumers engage in more responsible purchasing and disposal decisions. TerraCycle, for example, partners with companies such as Burt's Bees, L'Occitane, eos, and Living Proof (to name but a few) to recycle beauty packaging that isn't typically accepted curbside. Meanwhile, Loop offers a refill service for brands such as REN, Dermalogica, and Puretto, professionally cleaning the (typically aluminum-based) packaging before topping up your favorite products and shipping them back out to you. However, experts agree that for significant and long-lasting transitions to occur within the industry, companies themselves need to initiate changes — and, fortunately, some are already making strides in doing so. From big to small, here are 17 personal care brands doing their bit in the world of sustainable packaging.
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Consumers can send in Good Chemistry packaging including, rigid plastic caps and glass to be recycled for free.