Textile Insight

FOOTWEAR | SPRING'18 32 • Textile Insight ~ July/August 2017 textileinsight.com as well as its immediately recognizable look. Birkenstock, which has continued its fashion hot streak for multiple sea- sons, is as recognizable for its cork-latex outsole blend as it is for the footbed it uses it in. And a fresh crop of brands is embracing the material for Spring '18. Vancouver-based Sole has made the material the centerpiece of one of its insole lines, and for Spring '18 Beach Flips style ($60) pair footbeds made of the brand's 100 percent recycled cork with TPU straps. Similarly, Ferndale, WA-based insole maker Superfeet has used a cork-EVA insole blend in its footwear styles since launching the category. In Spring '18 styles like the $95 Dana show it off. Outdoor player Merrell is debuting a sporty new women's sandal style called the Around Town Sunvue Woven ($80) that pairs a cork-wrapped midsole with a punchy synthetic upper. But it's not just cork. This month, British footwear firm Vivobarefoot (known already for espousing "natural motion" in footwear) will release a new running shoe made with Bloom Foam, a polymer made from excess algae harvested from the blooms that can choke lakes and other bodies of water. Also later this year, Reebok's Cotton + Corn project will unveil its first shoe, part of a larger collection that uses Susterra, a poly- urethane ingredient sourced from corn. For spring, Keen is releasing its iconic Newport sandal in two earthy iterations. The $110 Newport Retro Hemp style puts the textured material and its untreated color front and center, and $100 Newport Eco for men and women uses rice husk in the outsole. These derived-from-nature materials highlight the other critical factor in the "natural" movement: A desire to keep pushing sustainability forward. Adidas' Parley line is a good example. The footwear features upcycled plastic culled from the ocean into knit uppers, and the company will expand into the performance category this spring with the women's-only $100 Terrex CC Voyager Sleek Parley multisport shoe. According to Reebok Head of Future Bill McInnis, after many years of research- ing materials, "the moment is right." He explained, "We looked at every aspect — to being able to recycle product to using recycled materials to how we could recycle it on the back end — but to us, the top of the pyramid was things that can be grown, and to make it out of things that can compost." For Spring '18, and seasons ahead, the appeal of some- thing that comes directly from the earth is hard to ignore on the footwear front. O Top to bottom: Hi'ona Pa'i, Kahikolu, Aweawe, Nohona Ulana and Mea OlaEha shoes from OluKai pair natural, earthy leathers with metallics and rustic detail for Spring '18.

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