Barefoot shoes tend to impress mostly because of their unique, attention-grabbing design and awesome, authentic groundfeel. What’s equally as impressive, if not more so, is that many barefoot shoes used recycled materials, including the Primus Lite by Vivobarefoot. What are these barefoot shoes?
Vivobarefoot’s Primus Lite is a barefoot shoe made of bio-friendly materials and recycled polyethylene terephthalate or PET plastics like water bottles. Not only can you feel good about wearing these shoes for their great groundfeel, but for how you’re making a smart choice for our planet with your purchase.
Are you curious to learn even more about Vivobarefoot’s Primus Lite barefoot shoes? Then you’ve come to the right place. In today’s post, we’ll discuss the brand’s history of sustainability and delve further into Primus Lite II’s recycled materials. We’ll even share a few alternative barefoot shoes made of recycled materials for your consideration.
The Legacy of Vivobarefoot Using Recycled Materials in Their Barefoot Shoes
Vivobarefoot was founded in 1997, long, long before barefoot and minimalist shoes gained popularity. As times have changed, so too has Vivobarefoot, as any conscientious shoe manufacturer should.
This 2013 report from MIT News highlights how shoe production has severe environmental repercussions. When a single set of running shoes goes into production, it releases a significant amount of carbon dioxide, 30 pounds. MIT says that’s the same as burning a lightbulb for a week at 100 watts.
From materials extraction to running manufacturing plants (often using coal or steam) and going through the many assembly steps to make shoes (which may be as many as 360 steps, notes the report), producing a pair of shoes is no easy feat.
National Geographic states that in 2018, shoes were manufactured in huge numbers, 24 billion pairs. If you take that 30 pounds of carbon dioxide and multiply it by 24 billion shoes, you get 720 billion pounds of potential carbon dioxide released.
Barefoot shoes are already more sustainable considering they require fewer materials to make, but that wasn’t enough for Vivobarefoot. In 2017, the minimalist shoe brand began producing footwear with what it calls “bio-based materials.”
What are these, you ask? Well, it depends on the Vivobarefoot shoe, but bio-based materials may refer to plant materials such as foam reinforced with algae or corn-based biopolymers.
The sustainability of Vivobarefoot only grew from there. The company also got into manufacturing shoes with recycled materials when possible, all to meet their 2020 goal of having most of their shoes, up to 90 percent, be made of materials that are better for Mother Nature.
What Is the Vivobarefoot Primus Lite?
That brings us to the Vivobarefoot Primus Lite, one of the brand’s most renowned barefoot shoes. The women’s version is here and the men’s here.
The plastic waste that would usually go into landfills gets a second life in the Primus Lite. That’s a good thing too considering that it takes plastics upwards of 1,000 years to break down in landfills, be that water bottles or other sources of PET plastic.
The Primus Lite II also features the bio-based materials mentioned in the last section, specifically the Bloom EVA insole made of biomass algae. Back in 2017, when the Bloom EVA insole was born, Vivobarefoot had learned that waterways across the world were being affected by an overgrowth of algae.
The reason the algae develops is due to chemical runoff that reaches bodies of water all over the world and then travels to waterways. The toxins that accumulate amongst the algae aren’t safe for us people and especially the nearby wildlife. As the algae grow, it takes over more of the waterway, preventing sunlight from reaching the creatures that live on the surface and underneath the water. Bodies of water also become deoxygenated.
Rather than irresponsibly disposing of the algae, Vivobarefoot began using it to produce their lighter-than-air, 3-millimeter foam insoles. Per each pair of barefoot shoes with bio-based materials, Vivobarefoot takes up to 57 gallons of water, clears it of algae, and then sends the water back where it came from, now cleaner than ever. On top of all that, these shoes are also totally vegan.
Don’t forget that, besides these great features, the Primus Lite II shoes are also great footwear for barefoot lovers. These shoes are lightweight and contort to your foot, maximizing your groundfeel with every step. They’re also breathable so you can walk lightly in them, exercise in them, or do whatever suits you.
Other Barefoot Shoes Made of Recycled Materials
If you’re looking to expand your recycled barefoot shoe collection beyond just the Vivobarefoot Primus Lite II shoes, you’re in luck. Here are two more eco-friendly pairs of barefoot shoes to buy ASAP.
Vivobarefoot Primus Lite II Bio
If you love the Primus Lite II shoes, then you won’t want to miss the Vivobarefoot Primus Lite II Bio. The men’s shoes are here and the women’s here.
According to this bio page on the shoes from Vivobarefoot themselves, the Primus Lite II Bio is made with plant materials which comprise more than 30 percent of these barefoot shoes.
The Ultra Bloom algae foam insole makes an appearance here, and the Ultra Bloom material is used for the outsoles as well. Those outsoles and the other rubber components of these barefoot shoes come from Vietnam, where rubber trees grow abundantly. Vivobarefoot sources the rubber from these trees in a sustainable way.
The TPU in the Primus Lite II Bio shoes comes from yellow dent field corn. The corn is fermented to take the corn starch’s glycose and convert it into the TPU material. Vivobarefoot then uses the TPU for the soles of the Primus Lite II Bio as well as the uppers.
The rest of these shoes are made of recycled PET plastics and bio-based polymers like Sorona plant fibers. Completely toxin-free and petroleum-free, these vegan shoes meet certification from the United States Department of Agriculture or USDA.
The men’s shoes come in a light forest green hue and the women’s shoes are available in three colors: Obsidian (black), Moonstone (white), or Bio Lime (lime green).
Mukishoes
Mukishoes is another brand to have on your radar, especially their cork barefoot shoes, which also happen to be vegan. Mukishoes was founded by a couple named Marta and Madlen. The two had an interest in producing barefoot shoes that are all-natural. They decided to crowdfund to gauge interest and then raised enough money to start producing Mukishoes. The rest is history.
The cork-based shoes are for autumn and winter wear, as they’re closed-toe shoes that feature uppers made of cork. Yes, that’s right, cork, like that in wine bottles.
Cork is a great renewable resource, as the cork trees that produce the material can survive for upwards of 150 years. It takes about a decade for the cork to be harvestable, but even so, you could harvest cork about 15 times if the tree lived for 150 years.
Now, you may have questions about cork uppers. Won’t they be very stiff and unyielding? Oh, and uncomfortable too, right? Yet neither is the case with Mukishoes. The cork uppers are leather-like and very pliable. If you look at the shoes up-close, you will certainly notice that they’re made of cork, but with a black upper, it’s hard to tell.
The interior of these shoes is 4 millimeters of cotton lining for warming your feet and for reinforcing the cork. These Mukishoes also have a zero-drop heel, a 7.5-millimeter stack height, and outsoles that are 3.5 millimeters. The cork outers aren’t all that’s recycled, as the rubber outsoles are as well.
The cool thing about wearing cork-based shoes is that they’re water-resistant. This isn’t the same as being waterproof, so don’t go jumping in a pond, but walking through a puddle should be just fine.
Conclusion
Vivobarefoot produces eco-friendly barefoot shoes using recycled PET plastic such as water bottles as well as recycled rubber and bio-based materials like the Bloom EVA insole.
Besides Vivobarefoot, Mukishoes also makes sustainable shoes with cork uppers. If you didn’t know that cork is a renewable material, now you do!
If you’re still shopping around for your first pair of barefoot shoes, perhaps it will be one of these three. The planet will certainly thank you.