A shoe runs in a circle

Öko-sneakers just sprout out of the ground.In the meantime, practically everything that can be acquired for the muffled passage over the asphalt is under the seal of approval of sustainability.

Like Veja, the simple sneakers in Weiss, with the characteristic V on the page.The fire is adorned with the keyword "vegan".This means that anyone wearing Veja knows that only biologically grown cotton was used, plus ecological natural rubber - from the Amazon area, where the working conditions were "fair" and the finished product was shipped into recycling boxes.

The eco-sneakers are not only in the urban centers.Even Duchess Meghan was photographed, as the first royal in sneakers.

Ten full -time positions

Is this sustainability on the feet everything just PR?An advertising work?The Swiss start-up, which has developed into a serious competitor of the two sports giants Nike and Adidas since 2010, has also been one of the advertising masters of his field.However, sustainability has already been committed to the time of the founding.

The three founders determined the basic features of the business plan on a hike in the Engadine, under the impression of the returning glacier.Two of the three founders still live in remote, natural areas-Caspar Coppetti, for example.Moritz and Zernez.

The goal of ON, spokeswoman Vesna Stimac explains, has always been sustainable shoe production-even before the other sneaker brands jumped on the train.

A few years ago, the company started to tackle sustainability professionally and holistically.According to reports, ten full -time positions are dedicated to the topic today.The central question: How does a greatest impact for the climate result?

According to Stimac, it has become clear quickly: The focus must be on the material.Around 80 percent of total emissions go back to the materials used.

On the only used only materials that fulfill a function in the end product.Pure ornament is a no-go, a waste.Well, sums up Stimac, you can make a recyclable shoe made of natural and biological materials, but at some point it ends.That means: «We wanted a zero waste shoe to avoid waste as completely as possible.»

The question was: How can a running shoe be produced that circulates in a complete cycle - from on, as a manufacturer, to the consumer and back again.Different scenarios were possible for this, as Stimac says.One wanted to foresee.The same applies to a kind of depot.«We wanted to work with the consumer and not raise him.»

Therefore, in inspiring subscribed online services such as Netflix or Spotify.This “subscription idea”, as Vesna Stimac calls it, wanted to implement on.

With cyclon, the running shoe is called, a kind of subscription shoe will be on the market next year.In the idea of a new form of the circular economy that no manufacturer has dared to get in from the running shoe industry, stimac speaks.

From the castor bean

Oil for the material is to be obtained from the castor bean, which needs little water during cultivation and is not suitable for consumption.

As soon as the consumer no longer needs the shoe, it can be handed over to ON.The manufacturer shreds him, produces new products from the stamped material and sends the customer seamlessly to the customer.This is how the circulation closes.

Because empirical values are lacking, Stimac compares the concept with a "jump into the cold water".Nevertheless, she is convinced of the idea: the necessary 5000 cyclon reservations have already been received in America.So much is needed per region to realize the project worthwhile.In Europe one is on the best way.

How the whole thing develops is uncertain.Should the project work and the customer voluntarily swap his old for a new couple, a zero waste shoe would literally come into circulation for the first time.It would be a real eco-shoe.