Glue-Free "Creo Shoe Concept" Supports Local Shoemakers

From German designer Jennifer Rieker comes a glue-free shoe that challenges mass consumption, via Ecouterre.

Called the "Creo Shoe Concept," the flat-pack footwear is mailed to you in a vegetable-tanned calf leather envelope -- which becomes the inner shoe -- with adaptable rubber soles; a pair of footbeds, made out of cork, latex and jute; a pair of shoelaces, and directions for you to put it all together, along with the help of a local shoemaker.

The shoes can be ordered online. They are then shipped from Germany, where the designer is based, and the finishing process occurs locally, at the hand of the consumer.

Reiker isn't happy that "hardly anyone goes to the shoemaker" to have their shoes repaired. So she's doing something about it: With a focus on user integration, Rieker aims to raise consumer awareness on the shoe-making process and influence users' consumption patterns. In her press notes, she says, "the dialogue between the user and the shoemaker should encourage the user to take care about and repair his belongings more often."



The shoe's design makes for an easy repairing or replacing of specific parts, and even makes it easier to recycle the components separately at the end of the shoe's life.

Source: Tree Hugger

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