Change agent Fashion for Good has announced its ‘Closing the Footwear Loop’ initiative which is intended to support the footwear sector’s drive to become a more circular industry.
Footwear is a sector where this is a particularly complex challenge. But the collaborative project, involving 14 fashion and footwear brands, aims to enable the transformation of footwear’s current linear ‘take-make-dispose’ model into a circular one.
Participating brands include Adidas, Deichmann, Dr Martens, Footwear Innovation Foundation (affiliated with the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America trade body), Inditex, Lululemon, On, Otto Group, Puma, Reformation, Target, Tommy Hilfiger, Vivobarefoot, and Zalando.
According to historic research, each shoe that enters the market is composed on average of more than 60 different components. Companies continue to make enhancements amd improvements in this space but it is still challenging for the sector, as we have highlighted on these pages before.
The materials in shoes range from fabrics and plastics to rubber and adhesives, and they are intricately assembled which means most shoes end up in landfill at the end of their life rather than being broken down so parts can be used in new products. Footwear’s multi-material construction and complex design complicate efforts to sort, disassemble, or recycle effectively.
Closing the Footwear Loop aims to create a synergistic approach to driving industry-wide change.
The Footwear Collective, Global Footwear Future Coalition, and Global Fashion Agenda are all involved in the new initiative which has three key aims.
- Detailed mapping of European footwear waste streams (in collaboration with Circle Economy), providing crucial data on volumes, materials, rewearability, and recyclability. (Report & business case assessment due 2025)
- A roadmap towards circular footwear design,developed with Fashion for Good alumni fashion, outlining guidance and criteria for circular and safe inputs and materials, recyclability, durability and repairability. (Guidelines due 2025)
- Validation of end-of-use innovations, including trials and impact assessments, to overcome current bottlenecks and drive industry-wide adoption. (Recycled material outputs due 2026).
Katrin Ley, managing director of Fashion for Good, said: “The footwear industry stands at a critical turning point.
“With billions of shoes produced annually and 90% ending up in landfills, ‘Closing the Footwear Loop’ represents our most ambitious effort yet to reimagine how we design, use, and dispose of shoes. By bringing together 14 leading brands, we’re not just addressing a challenge—we’re creating a blueprint for systemic change.”
[image credit: Green Retail World]
