After Pinocchio, the shoes

In recent years, sustainability has ceased to be a mere trend and has become a categorical imperative for the fashion industry. The need to reduce carbon footprints and limit the use of petroleum derivatives has prompted designers and materials engineers to explore unexpected frontiers, seeking solutions that combine aesthetics, comfort and respect for the environment. Thus, after Pinocchio, shoes are once again being made from wood, a natural resource that, when properly managed, offers incredible strength and, surprisingly, flexibility. One example is the Woowe brand, which has managed to combine Italian craftsmanship with a totally vegan approach. This brand produces luxury footwear using a very thin sheet of flexible wood. The result is an ethical shoe that is surprisingly soft, but also unique because it bears the grain of the trunk and the history of the tree from which it comes, demonstrating how sustainability can be combined with aesthetics and elegance to compete at the highest levels of international fashion.

Another example of green excellence that creates fashion from wood waste is DotZero, a brand of handmade sneakers made in Italy, in Florence, using waste material from wood processing and the paper industry. Wood and paper account for 94% of DotZero’s components. These products are processed to give the final material the mechanical and physical properties common to the plastics widely used today. The insole, on the otherhand, is made from a material composed of natural fibres derived from coconut food processing waste. This material is agglomerated with the addition of natural latex to create a real dough that is then rolled out and pressed.

Not only that: both brands deal with the ‘end of life’ of the product. Often, even shoes defined as sustainable end up in landfill once worn out, as the different materials they are made of (glues, plastics, fabrics) are difficult to separate. At Woowe, every part can be recycled and reused, promoting a circular economy, as is the case with DotZero, where shoes that have reached the end of their useful life can be returned to the brand’s team, which processes them to create new products, thus closing the circle perfectly.