You’ve heard of shoes made from animal skin; shoes made from plants and shoes made from wood. Introducing vegan sneakers made from wine leftovers!
Dutch shoe company, Mercer Amsterdam, has announced its new vegan-friendly trainers produced in collaboration with Vegea, an Italian company that specialises in the production of wine leather made from grape seeds and fibres.
“Wine leather is soft, smooth, stable, 100% sustainable and can be recycled. It almost feels like leather and can also be processed adequately. It is 100% vegan, no animals are harmed and no animal products are used during the production process.’’ said a statement from the company.
In addition to the wine leather, other materials to be used in the production of W3RD Wine Pack – the name of this collection – are mesh made from recycled PET bottles and algae.
Speaking on this soon-to-be-released range, Founder of the fashion brand Pim Mercer said: “For me, it is important for us to try and change the high-end sneaker industry- it doesn’t need to be all-leather all the time.
“The best experience for me is when someone says ‘I love this sneaker’ without knowing the backstory. This goes to show that sustainable, vegan, and plant-based footwear can be as nice and luxurious as real leather – and that is a game-changer in a mostly all-leather and plastic industry.”
The shoes will be launched in December as part of Mercer’s SpringSummer 21 collection.
Source: Plant Based News and Decanter