NEW RESEARCH BY VIVOBAREFOOT IS UNCOVERING THE IMPACT CONSUMERS HAVE ON THE PLANET EVERY YEAR THROUGH THEIR FEET AND THEIR SHOE-BUYING HABITS 

– Estimated 22 billion pairs of shoes end up in landfill each year, with 149million from the UK

– 46% of consumers planning to buy more shoes during Black Friday sales

– 44% of consumers simply bin their shoes when finished with them

– 77% of people believe the shoe industry should do more to reduce its level of waste

– 52% of shoppers in the UK say they would be more likely to buy from a company if it offers an end of life solution

– Vivobarefoot is the first brand to offer an end-of-life solution for all its footwear via their reconditioning service, ReVivo

 London, November 2020 – With 22 billion pairs of shoes going into landfill this year – 149 million of them in the UK – Vivobarefoot is urging other footwear manufacturers to follow its lead in introducing an end-of-life solution for their products.

The call comes as almost half of us (46%) prepare to purchase more shoes during the Black Friday sales period (an estimated total of 67 million pairs). Yet 77% of people want brands to help reduce this waste and more than half (60%) are open to paying more to make this possible.

Vivobarefoot recently introduced ReVivo, an industry-first end-of-life solution for its footwear. ReVivo allows consumers to send back their shoes once finished with them to be repaired, reconditioned and placed back on sale, keeping products in circulation and out of landfill.

The introduction of ReVivo is underpinned by research commissioned by Vivobarefoot showing that just one-in-five people are aware of the damaging environmental impact of disposing of shoes, with 44% of Brits throwing their footwear in the bin once they have finished with them.

Further results show that while 52% of consumers believe brands should be looking at offering end-of-life solutions for their products.

As a result, Vivobarefoot is not taking part in a Black Friday sale this year, instead focusing on championing ReVivo and the need for all brands to start offering similar end of life solutions.

Vivobarefoot founder Galahad Clark said: “No doubt, the elephant in the sustainable shoe room is end-of-life and the fact that nearly all shoes end up in landfill or, at best, get ground down into flooring material.  The shoe industry makes shoes out of complicated different materials bonded together with a lot of petro-chemicals that will ultimately sit in landfill for a lot longer than the lives of the wearers.”

He added: “The launch of ReVivo is a super exciting step in that journey and one of many initiatives we are taking to make sure none of our shoes ever end up slowly decaying in landfill. The research we commissioned shows that consumers want to see this change and we hope that the rest of the shoe industry will invest in initiatives like ReVivo and help curb this huge waste problem for the sake the planet we all live on.”