Who is Eva and what does she have to do with Shoes?

I don't feel like this topic crosses anyones mind regulary.  I, as a shoe designer, fashion lover and a protector for the environment, hardly thought about the harmful effects of certain ingrediants used in shoes and the effects on the our earth.. So I did some research and I recommend that you do the same.....

For the Month of May, I am going to focus on this topic to create more awarness and give me the chance to really dive into this topic.  

Lets start with this.....Ethylene Vinyl Acetate. WHAT THE!!! Just like ingrediants in a cake, there are ingredients when making shoes that has some words that are so difficult to pronounce.. well just focus on one Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate... wtf??    I call it EVA.. thats the little Nik name... Oh Hey Eva..... or maybe not..no one likes EVA, and let me tell you why.....EVA is an elastomeric polymer that produces materials which are "rubber-like" in softness and flexibility. You will have seen this or worn this plenty of time in your life.... It is a plastic made by combining ethylene and vinyl acetate to create rubber like properties which ar commonly found in shoe soles which usually makes up the midsole of most running shoes. Yes they look good on a shoe and they create comfort and retraction when running however sadly and what no one tells us is this can last for as long as 1000 years in landfill :(

Luckily I dont use this material and I dont create alot of sneakers. But I want to focus on Adidias for a minute.  They have come up with a brilliant campaign called, The recycled Waste Ocean shoe.. 

Constructed from re-purposed abandoned or illegal drift nets (also known as gill nets) pulled from the ocean, the nets are woven into the shoes upper. With no shortage of available material (there are gill nets like this clogging oceans and seas all around the world),well they saw this and thought ‘wow,  this could be developed into an actual scalable product’. Removing these nets that kill thousands of ocean animals, including turtles, dolphins, sharks, rays and even whales. Go adidas!

Love this idea! And if you find some, support them and purchase them.. I hav'nt come up with anything yet that could even come close this type of expertise but if you have an idea how we can support this topic, please get in touch. Email: Admin@olivewinter.com