Eco-friendly shoes with reusable soles and zip-on styles

An Italian startup has created reusable soles that allow wearers to swap out different styles of environmentally-friendly uppers

Spotted: Italian shoe manufacturer, ACBC, is offering a new take on sustainable shoes with their eco-friendly soles, which attach to a range of zip-on uppers. The company says the shoes will cut down on waste by reducing the number of rubber soles heading to the landfill.

The shoes, branded Made2Share, allow people to turn the same pair of soles into different styles of footwear. The swap-out system reduces waste, and the soles and removable uppers are made out of eco-friendly material — a mixture of rubber made from bamboo, algae-based foam and BioVeg, a bio-based plastic. The skins are also made from Tencel, which is beechwood, or piñatex, a material made largely of pineapple waste. 

Tencel skins are biodegradable, once the plastic zippers are removed, and although Piñatex is not completely biodegradable, the soles can be sent back to the company to be recycled into flooring sheets. 

The shoes are currently part of a Kickstarter campaign. Early backers can pre-order one pair of soles and three sets of skins for €179.