SAOLA Shoes is a sustainable footwear brand that creates eco-friendly, lightweight, and casual shoes for men and women using recycled and natural materials like PET bottles, algae foam, and organic cotton. Their shoes are designed for everyday wear with a minimalist style, offering comfort, breathability, and versatile color options. Specializing in low-impact footwear, SAOLA is committed to reducing its carbon footprint through sustainable production processes and minimizing waste.
SAOLA
SAOLA Shoes is a sustainable footwear brand that creates eco-friendly, lightweight, and casual shoes for men and women using recycled and natural materials like PET bottles, algae foam, and organic cotton. Their shoes are designed for everyday wear with a minimalist style, offering comfort, breathability, and versatile color options. Specializing in low-impact footwear, SAOLA is committed to reducing its carbon footprint through sustainable production processes and minimizing waste.
Transparency
- SAOLA shares country-level information about their factory site which is in Vietnam and has a video of the factory.
- SAOLA provides top-level audit scores about its factory site.
- SAOLA addresses risks related to subcontracting in the BSCI Code of Conduct.
- SAOLA could share more details about their manufacturing facilities for more transparency, such as a factory list.
- SAOLA Shoes could also share information about their raw materials suppliers.
Fair Labor
- SAOLA’s factories are BSCI certified which has stringent laws for labor protection and rights.
- SAOLA’s partner factories are also required to pay at least either the governmental minimum wage or the industry average to their workers.
- SAOLA could conduct regular audits of their factories, and share information about this, to improve their score in the Fair Labor category.
Sustainably Made
- SAOLA discloses the average carbon emission per pair of shoes.
- All of SAOLA’s shoes are dyed through dope dyeing, which uses 55-65% less energy, 85-95% less water, and 60-70% less CO2 than traditional dyeing.
- SAOLA’s products are REACH compliant, as well as GRS, GOTS, and OEKO TEX certified. OEKO TEX has an extensive MRSL.
- SAOLA uses recycled PET, recycled polyurethane, recycled cork, and recycled EVA in its shoes.
- SAOLA uses knit construction rather than cut-and-sew to reduce material waste in all of its products.
- SAOLA has only two releases each year and does not restock its collections to prevent overproduction.
