A staggering 25 billion shoes are manufactured every single year worldwide. That's enough for everyone on the planet to buy at least three pairs each. The vast majority of these shoes end up going to landfills where they do not degrade and contribute to the climate crisis.
This is why a lot of people are beginning to turn to organic footwear. Shoes made from organic materials offer a more sustainable, ethical, and durable alternative to the more common types of footwear out there.
If you've been thinking about going organic with your shoes, read on to learn all about it.
What Does Organic Mean?
If you were to look it up in the dictionary, then the term organic just refers to items that are manufactured from living things. But the term means more than that. 'Organic' doesn't only refer to the materials used to make products, but also refers to how they're grown, handled, and processed.
Organic products like hemp sole shoes are made of materials that have been grown ethically and sustainably without the need for pesticides or any other chemical or external help.
Put simply, the growing and cultivating process for organic products should be as natural as it is possible to be.
Benefits of Organic Footwear
Traditional footwear is seldom made of organic materials. Instead, they're usually made from synthetic or heavily processed materials like plastics, rubber, or leather, which can cause a high degree of environmental damage.
In fact, the most common footwear and clothing manufacturing methods account for nearly 10% of all greenhouse emissions.
A lot of this is offset when you opt to buy organic footwear. Let's take a closer look at why organic shoes are absolutely amazing.
Sustainability
Organic materials are much more sustainable than non-organic ones. Organic crops use no pesticides and rely on a more natural growing and cultivating process. Some organic crops, like hemp, use barely any water during the growing process and so help the environment on multiple fronts.
Products made from sustainable materials are also often completely biodegradable. When you throw out sneakers made of rubber or plastic, they're not going to break down for a very, very long time. Instead, they're just going to sit there in a landfill, contributing to a growing pile of trash that will pollute the earth even further.
When you try to wear organic shoes that are biodegradable, when you eventually come to throw them away, they're going to break down and return to the earth that they came from.
Durability
Organic materials are often incredibly durable as well, especially hemp shoes. When care has been taken to properly grow and handle the materials that the shoes are made of, you know that they're going to be properly manufactured and made to last.
Durability doesn't just help the environment; it also helps your wallet. Durable shoes are going to last you so much longer than shoes made by throwaway and fast fashion brands, so you're not going to need to fork out for new kicks every single year.
Your feet do so much work every day, so you should make sure that your shoes are made of a material that can stand up to any rigorous testing and activities that you're going to put them through.
Regenerative
This might seem like a silly sentence, but it's worth reading just to hammer the point home; you cannot grow plastic. With shoes made from plastic, that material has to be made from scratch, and then again for the next pair, and again, and again. All of this plastic adds up and contributes massively to the climate crisis.
Organic material, however, can be easily replaced once growers have finished cultivating the previous crop. For every hemp plant that is harvested to make organic shoes, another can be planted in its place almost immediately, so there the process isn't destructive at all.
Ethical
Finally, organic materials are just as ethical. Plastics are harmful to the environment full stop, the harvesting of rubber is an intrusive and destructive process, and making shoes out of leather requires an animal to die just for a pair of shoes.
Organic materials aren't harming the planet or any animals when they're used to making clothing and footwear; they're just taken from the ground and turned into shoes. Harm reduction is always at the forefront of the manufacturing process.
Hemp: The Best Organic Material
So you've read all about the amazing benefits of organic footwear, but what's the best organic material? That would be hemp. It's a wonderfully strong and versatile material that's been used for decades to make rope, but manufacturers are now using it to make clothes and organic footwear.
Why Opt for Hemp?
Hemp is a great option for both consumers and manufacturers because it is super easy to grow and very environmentally friendly.
Hemp growers need to use very little water to grow their crops and hemp doesn't require any pesticides during the growing process. It grows quickly and abundantly so it's a very sustainable and regenerative crop.
On top of that, it's a very tough and durable material. It is resistant to UV rays and also very resistant to water, meaning that it very rarely goes moldy.
Get Your Organic Footwear Today
If you want to start making more ethical choices when it comes to your clothing, then organic footwear is a great place to start. It's a sustainable industry that causes little to no collateral damage during the cultivation and manufacturing process.
Has this article got you on the hunt for some organic hemp footwear? FootHemp has got you covered. Check out our catalog of organic hemp sole shoes, wraps, and insoles today.