The most sustainable and vegan sneaker is made out of re-used and recycled materials. All we use to make Komrads APL is: eco apple leather, recycled rubber, re-used pet bottles & reycled cotton. We don't compromise on quality, comfort or design. So, we design sneakers with great respect for the planet we live on.
What makes Komrads APL sustainable?
Upper: Apple Eco Leather
Frumat is our apple leather supplier. They produce apple eco leather using waste from the apple juice industry because every year this industry leaves behind a significant amount of waste. However, Frumat uses this waste (apple peel and core) to develop a new raw material. An ecological alternative to leather.
Moreover, apple leather is a cellulose-based material with as much as 50% of recycled apple fiber. In short, it's a durable, bio-based and high-quality alternative to leather with a low environmental impact.
Sole: 100% Rubber
We use recycled rubber. It's made from, for example, old sneaker soles. We color the recycled rubber with biological paint. Recycled rubber is strong and from outstanding quality.
The main reason we choose recycled rubber is to reduce waste drastically. Furthermore, we want to fight the destruction of the Rain Forest. Every year the fashion industry - among other industries - cuts down 18M of hectares of the Rain Forest. They replace this destroyed nature with palm oil trees and rubber plantations. In other words, at current rates the Rain Forest will vanish altogether in 100 years. This massive deforestation of the lungs of the earth is one of the main things that cause climate change.
Linning and laces: recycled cotton and plastic bottles
As a matter of fact, recycled cotton is re-purposed, post-industrial or post-consumer cotton that otherwise ends up as waste for the landfill. Producing recycled cotton needs less water and energy.
Read more about our recycled and re-used materials