Footwear retailer Dr Martens has been working with materials innovator Gen Phoenix for a year now – using the company’s reclaimed leather in its Genix Nappa collection, which launched in 2024.
And now that partnership has expanded into bags and kids shoes. Dr Martens has this week unveiled its Solar Flare ranges in time for peak trading period 2025 – and the collection includes its first bag crafted from Gen Phoenix’s reclaimed leather material.
It demonstrates the scalability of Gen Phoenix’s circular technology platform, which involves preventing leather waste cuts from going to landfill and using them in new products.
The retailer has also launched the Solar Flare kids’ boot, bringing reclaimed leather products to a new younger audience. The boot is made from Gen Phoenix’s soft and lightweight Genix Nappa material, and has a silver sun, moon, and star print across the upper.
Gen Phoenix describes it process of turning waste into “premium recycled materials” as “luxcycling”.
According to the materials company, Gen Phoenix has helped Dr Martens divert 15 tonnes of leather offcuts from going to waste, which it estimates is around the weight of 15 compact cars.
Being made from multiple materials and with several component parts glued together, shoes are a notoriously difficult product to recycle. There are several consortiums in place looking to help move the footwear industry in a more circular direction.
In February, change agent Fashion for Good announced its ‘Closing the Footwear Loop’ initiative which brings together 14 fashion and footwear brands, including Adidas, Deichmann, Dr Martens, and Puma, to find ways to evolve the sector from its ‘take-make-dispose’ model into a circular one.
In September, running shoe brand On launched the Cloudrise Cyclon 1.1, a new product made from old footwear collected from its customers. The shoe’s speedboard – a plate embedded between the midsole and upper in several On running shoes which helps with flexibility – is composed of 99.5% recycled materials, derived from a combination of post-consumer shoes returned by On subscribers and manufacturing leftovers.
[image credit: Dr Martens]
