Shoe Packaging

Shoe packaging..boxes..what do we do with them once the shoes are taken out and we are wearing them..they linger around the house, in our cupboards, lofts, get used for storage to put crafty bits in or plugs or anything else that can be shoved in them. As much as this is good for the environment as it is pro-longing the life before it ends up in the bin - though should be recycled because a lot more companies are now using almost 100% recyclable cardboard for their boxes. We should find a new use for them, if any thing, should the box exist at all? Of course this came from the video in a previous post, Puma's Clever Little Bag, which says why have the box at all..which got me thinking..do we need a box at all. Probably some kind of protection but there has to be other ways. I started to look at the existing shoe boxes that are around, concentrating on the BIG brands to see what they are doing to help reduce waste (if anything)

Nike.

In 2011 Nike relaunched a new style of shoe box for their ever growing collection of shoes. Instead of the bug chunky corrugated cardboard that existed for so many years. But during their brain storm to design a shoe box that was using less materials/waste/weight and shipping, they found the materials used for this maybe not have the recycling facilities in every country, meaning more material is ending up in landfill. So going back to the drawing board they designed a new cardboard show box that would reduce their material use by 30% and saving 200,000 trees a year, and by reducing the weight, reduces the shipping too. They continue looking to design better boxes with less packaging.

http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/content/environment/4-7-0-case-study-rethink-the-box.php

Vans.

Vans continue their research into reducing their packing and wastage, not focusing on the boxes but have been reducing the waste by taking away and reducing the size of their swing tags on some of their apparel, resulting in saving 400 trees a year and also claim that by 2014 (this year) the swing tags used will be made of recycled paper, and printed using soy-inks. I do feel that Vans could take a leap out of Nike's book and rework their shoe box, as there store and the feel of the brand seems very 'organic' and to find out that the only bit of research to better their impact of the environment is the swing tags, a quite small part of their company, they could do better. But we shell see what the future holds.

http://www.vans.com/sustainability.html

Timberland.

Though extremely hard to find any information about Timberland and their sustainability, I did find out that they have started focusing on their carbon footprint and have now started using 100% recycled cardboard for their shoe boxes, made with one solid piece of card, so no glue is used, and they use soy-ink for printing. 

http://responsibility.timberland.com/product/?story=1
http://www.timberlandpro.eu/about/greenphilosophy

Toms

Toms shoes are very "pro-world" and do a lot work in poor countries to give them a better life. They do this by, every pair sold, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in a poor country, they also send volunteers out to help, and also help the environment by offering shoes made of sustainable and vegan shoes (though working on making this an only option) and all shoe boxes are made with 80% recycled post-consumer waste and soy-ink.