The veganest vegan shoe to date: French brand uses 5 sustainable leathers

In France, sneaker startup MoEa is using pretty much all of the vegan leathers available to date, including materials made from apples, pineapple, corn, cactus, and grape. 

The apple and grape leathers are sourced from juice industry waste, the cactus and corn leathers are made from discarded skin, and the pineapple leather is made from leaves left over from pineapple harvesting. Other materials in the shoes include cotton, biobased polyurethane, recycled plastic, recycled bamboo, recycled rubber, and recycled wood fibers. 

The sneakers are available in five colors through a Kickstarter campaign. 

“We all love sneakers. They’re comfortable to wear and usable for a variety of different occasions. Unfortunately, they are also contributing negatively to the planet,” Achille Gazagnes, founder and CEO of MoEa, tells vegconomist. “Standard sneakers are made with leather or plastic, materials which are both highly polluting and cruel to animals. That’s why we’ve launched MoEa — to create sneakers that offer the same level of style and comfort you’d expect to see in your favorite leather pair, whilst ensuring that the planet isn’t some sort of a meaningless afterthought and that animals aren’t treated with cruelty.”