What We’re Doing

From day one, we’ve always sought to replace petroleum-based synthetic materials with natural alternatives whenever we can. When we haven’t found suitable alternatives, we’ve either invented our own—like SweetFoam®, our shoe sole material derived from the world’s first carbon negative green EVA—or invested in novel solutions, like Plant Leather, our 100% natural, plant-based leather. Of course, all of this comes with challenges. To help increase durability, we use recycled synthetics to bolster natural material content where we need to, and are innovating around new technologies to increase the performance and longevity of natural materials. On top of that, we know two important truths: we should be minimizing the amount of material we use in the first place to create lighter products, so we're working to redesign packaging and eliminate manufacturing waste. And in the spirit of fewer, better things, we should aim to  keep products in use longer, so we continue to think how we can give them new life when you're done using them.