Shoes For Sustainability

Seoul, Korea-based Hankook Tire and YASE leather shoe company recently embarked on a ‘zero
– leave nothing behind’ project with commitment to sustainable material and environmental protection.

As part of its commitment to sustainability and environmental protection, Hankook chose footwear as collaboration item noting that both tires and shoes share common traits of playing a crucial role in mobility and touching the ground on a daily basis. They also protect people from possible dangers on the road with durability and stability.

Not only the shoes themselves but also packaging is designed with sustainability initiative as well. Shoe box, tags and pamphlets are made of 100 percent sugarcane material. Hankook expects this will resonate with customers who are early adopters and are conscious about the environment.

Hankook has been at the frontier of innovation with its mission being ‘future innovated, innovation realized’. It’s not the first time that Hankook Tire participated in developing footwear through a cross-industry collaboration.  In 2015 Hankook worked with Vibram, a premium outsole company, to create concept tires as well as shoes to garner recognition for its ‘future innovated, innovation realized’ mission.

“We are happy to announce the collaboration which leads to mutually inspired progressive innovation for both companies. “ It’s thrilling that we can help customers choose footwear that will contribute to making the world a greener place. It’s also great to see our tires that have reached the end of their lives turning into outsoles of footwear to take people to where they want with comfortable, long wearing shoes that embody the same high quality materials and cutting-edge technologies found in our tires,” Jimmy Kwon, Vice President of Hankook Tire’s Brand Lab said.

In total, five products are being unveiled through collaboration: four dress shoes and one comfort insole. The dress shoes lineup is composed of Chelsea boots, square toe Chelsea boots, Derby shoes and square toe Derby shoes. They are sold online in Korea. Hankook Tire plans to continue collaboration with YASE to launch a line of running shoes in October.

© Scrap Tire News, October 2021