vegan materials.

By using materials that are not animal-derived in our shoes, we instantly cut back our environmental impact when compared to a shoe brand using cow skin leather.

When we consider the production of different materials, we see that cow skin leather is the third most environmentally impactful material to produce from cradle to gate. In comparison, when considering impacts like climate change, fossil fuel use, water scarcity, eutrophication and chemistry, even synthetic polyurethane (PU) leather has a far reduced impact.

compared to cow hide.

While synthetic materials aren't the solution to the future of fashion and sustainability, synthetic leather is far less impactful on the planet than cow skin and other animal-derived leathers, while being more accessible, while innovative materials continue to be developed. 

Some fast facts on how the two compare:

• Synthetic leather isn't biodegradable, but neither is most animal leather, even when vegetable tanned!

• To produce a pair of boots from PU rather than cow skin leather, 56.5kg less of CO2e (carbon equivalent) greenhouse gas emissions are released into the atmosphere.

• Making one pair of shoes made from cow skin leather uses up 7,612 litres of water, with PU requiring about 14 times less water.

• Unlike cow skin leather, synthetic leather does not contribute so significantly to deforestation and land clearing.

alternative materials.

Instead of cow skin leather, we use and stock shoes made of a wide variety of synthetic, partially bio-based, and plant materials. 

The materials we use, even those that are synthetic, are not harmful to the planet in the way that synthetic leather used to be.

PVC, a now lesser used synthetic leather compared to PU, is considered to be far more toxic. The PU that makes up our Zette shoes collection is OEKO-TEX 100 certified, ensuring ecological protection.

Some of our material and shoe manufacturing partners also run extra recycling initiatives to reduce their waste during production.