What we wear on our feet is important. Our feet support us, they're our platform for moving around, our foundation. What we put between the soles of our feet and the ground affects how easily, safely and comfortably we explore the world.
Recycle Treads are sandals made of repurposed materials
Our economy doesn't need to produce more stuff that gets used lightly and then thrown away. And there is a lot of discarded stuff that could be pulled from the waste stream and reused if we decide to be creative in how we give it new life.
Recycle Treads takes this to heart. These sandals are made of as much repurposed material as possible. They're made to be comfortable and take you where you want to go. They last.
The concept is simple: make a comfortable, durable sandal that's made out of repurposed materials.
The soles of Recycle Treads sandals are used bicycle and motorcycle tires no longer suitable for rims. Discarded wool felt is used for the footbed and salvaged remnants of industrial belting is used for the midsole. New materials (foam, straps and hardware) are used to make Recycle Treads functional and comfortable, but the bulk of these sandals are made with repurposed materials.
How these sandals got started
I wear sandals a lot and I tend to wear my outdoor gear pretty hard, and it was discouraging to have footwear fall apart way before they were worn out. I've had a lot of sandal straps simply pull out of the footbed, even on expensive sandals. So I started making my own. I'm an avid biker and when wondering about materials for the sole, the stack of used tires in the garage looked promising. There's a good reason there are videos on YouTube of shade-tree sandal-makers in different parts of the world making sandals out of tires. Used mountain bike and motorcycle tires make great soles – they really grip on many surfaces, even wet rocks, and they're long-wearing.
The footbed of Recycle Treads sandals – the layer of the sandal your foot rests on – is repurposed wool felt. A company that makes felt for a product it manufactures had been saving pieces they couldn't use, and it turns out wool felt makes a super footbed – comfortable under foot and durable. It comes to me in a varriety of colors, so Recycle Treads sandals are available in many color options.
It typically takes two sections of mountain bike tire to make the sole of a sandal, so a strong, flexible layer is needed to bond the treads to and give structural integrity to the sandals. Rubber belting is ideal. The belting used for Recycle Treads sandals is remnant from large rolls trimmed for another industries' use.
Recycle Treads sandals are offered with two different soles: mountain bike tires and motorcycle tires. The photos here are examples of mountain bike and motorcycle tire treads, but the specific tread pattern for each pair of sandals will vary based on the tires I have available.
Lugged mountain bike tires give excellent traction when you're walking on loose materials like sand, soil, gravel and snow. It typically takes two strips of tire tread running lengthwise to cover a sandal profile so to provide structure and additional stiffness to the sole of the sandal, the mountain bike treads are adhered to a layer of rubber belting. On top of the belting goes a one-half inch layer of foam for cushioning. A layer of wool felt is bonded to the foam.
You can see the cross-section of the mountain bike tire sandal in the photo: tire on the bottom, a layer of belting, foam and felt.
Motorcycle tires are much thicker and typically wider than mountain bike tires. Therefore, Recycle Treads motorcycle sandals don't need the layer of belting that mountain bike tire sandals do. The fabric plies and extra rubber of motorcycle tires is effectively belting, built into the tire.
The motorcycle tires scavenged for Recycle Treads sandals have an inverted tread – the outer surface of the tire is smooth and the tread pattern goes into the tire rubber – so they don't grip loose materials like sand, gravel and snow as well as mountain bike tires. Motorcycle tire sandals are great for walking on smoother surfaces like sidewalks and hiking on packed-surface trails.
The layer of cushioning foam is applied directly to the inside face of the motorcycle tire and the wool felt is adhered to the foam. Because motorcycle tires are thicker, they make for stiffer sandals relative to mountain bike sandals.
To put a pair of Recycle Treads sandals on your feet
Recycle Treads sandals are made in a small shop in the upper Midwest in the United States. Each pair of sandals is made to each individual order based on the gender, foot size, color and style (mountain bike or motorcycle) requested. Within the enormous, complex and global economy we’re all embedded in, there is room for small businesses like this to manufacture products they believe in.
If you'd like to order a pair of Recycle Treads sandals click below and you'll be linked to Recycle Treads on the Etsy website.
