Fruit does fashion…

The rise of fast fashion has impacted the environment in many ways – from waste filling up waterways to air pollution from manufacturing and more.

That’s why many companies are looking towards more sustainable sources for their clothing – especially sneaker companies.

Sustainably stylish shoes

 

MoEa is a shoe company that hopes to be a solution in a sea of problems for the fashion industry.

MoEa makes sustainable sneakers that are made 100% from plants and recycled materials. They’ve figured out a way to use fruit and vegetable waste in creating vegan leather that’s used for the upper part of the shoe.

The shoes consist of bamboo lining, recycled rubber for the soles, wood fiber for the insoles, and recycled polyester for the labels.

As for the fruit juice waste, the company gathers the apple waste from Italian juice factories, and grape waste is from – you guessed it – the Italian wine industry. That’s just to name a couple of sources… there are even more fruits and plants being gathered from different countries and industries!

Juicy vegan leather

To create this leather and manage the biomass waste, the fruits and plants are mixed with organic cotton, polyurethane, or recycled plastic.

This combination creates a breathable “leather” material that puts out 89% less carbon than real leather.

MoEa’s shoes are handcrafted in Portugal and use USDA biopreferred materials or materials that follow Global Recycled Standards. 

Shoe enthusiasts can go green… or cactus

 

To differentiate which plant waste was used, MoEa uses a color-based system where, for instance, a yellow shoe will be made from pineapple leather, and a red shoe would be from an apple.

When you pick your shoe color, you’re also picking your fruit — the sneakers come in pineapple, apple, grape, cactus, and corn.

Achille Gazagnes, founder and CEO of MoEa, stated that it was launched to create sneakers that “offer the same level of style and comfort you’d expect to see in your favorite leather pair, whilst ensuring that the planet isn’t some sort of a meaningless afterthought and that animals aren’t treated with cruelty.”

It looks like people are interested since MoEa achieved its Kickstarter funding goal in just 32 minutes! They’re even donating 1% of earnings to fund tree planting.

Vegan leather is growing in popularity and this company hopes more people will be able to adopt sustainable ways of being fashionable without harming the environment.

Do you think sustainable companies will cause a decline in so-called “fast fashion”? Or do you think it’s here to stay?

Let us know what you think in the comments below!