Vegan Bio Collection
Vegan shoes. Made of 99% biodegradable, breathable non-synthetic materials. Is it possible? Discover Balagan Vegan Bio - a pioneering collection of planet-friendly shoes.
Vegan Bio Collection
Vegan shoes. Made of 99% biodegradable, breathable non-synthetic materials. Is it possible? Discover Balagan Vegan Bio - a pioneering collection of planet-friendly shoes.
It’s not easy to make vegan shoes that are plastic-free. Despite this, we’ve managed to create a pioneering collection of vegan and biodegradable shoes, made 99% of materials that are compostable at the end of their life cycle.
At Balagan, we have long dreamed of a vegan alternative to animal leather. We have been searching for vegan "leather" available on the market for over a year. Unfortunately, all of the materials we have tested - apple, grape, pineapple and even cactus leather are largely based on synthetics. Contrary to what the producers advertise, "eco leather" is not always so ecological...
We intended to create a plastic-free product. Our new Balagan Vegan Bio collection was created out of care & concern for the environment. Find out more about the materials and discover our biodegradable shoes collection.
Organic cotton
In order to create vegan and plastic-free shoes, we decided to use natural fabrics, which we are sure are environmentally friendly and safe.
Our cotton is produced in Europe and comes from organic cotton yarn and recycled cotton yarn. The material we use is certified with the GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certificate which marks the highest standard of fabric production. Thanks to this, we can be sure that in the cotton cultivation and production process no fertilizers, artificial protection or chemicals that could pose a threat to the environment have been used. In assessing the manufacturing process, GOTS certification also covers social and environmental criteria, e.g. working conditions for farmers and producers. It also obliges textile manufacturers to use closed water circulation.
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Natural rubber soles
Unfortunately, most of well-known rubber soles are made of synthetic rubber, i.e. synthetic oils and petroleum derivatives. In our Vegan&Bio collection we decided to use only natural rubber, and produce two types of soles.
Lactae Hevea
See our Eretz sneaker’s soles - they are made from natural latex from the Lactae Brasilensis tree. For its production, trees are not cut down, but their bark is gently cut to obtain the "milk" produced by them. It’s a very sustainable process: sourcing liquid latex follows the natural cycle of the tree. Only an average of 50g of milk can be harvested per day, so in order to obtain material for the production of one pair of soles, collecting it from one tree would take 20 days. This is a slow and natural process by which the trees are replenished all the time, but also allowed to regenerate. Botanists believe that "dropping" the milk of the rubber tree has
a positive effect on increasing its strength and natural protective barrier.
The soles themselves are made in a small manufacture in the south of France that revived
a long-forgotten rubber processing 40 years ago. This is where our extremely soft and flexible soles are created. The production of the soles is completely manual - they are all hand-made. In the entire manufacturing process, no ingredients other than rubber are used, so used soles can be composted.
Natural crepe rubber
Crepe is not much different from Lactae Hevea soles. It all starts with the same rubber tree, but instead of pouring latex milk straight into the moulds, liquid latex is subjected to mechanical and thermal processes, giving the material slightly different properties and a characteristic rough texture. This is how the comfortable and durable soles of the Opera, Kemet and Ali vegan models are created.
Coconut and cork insoles
Our insoles are made of coconut fiber mixed with natural latex. The combination of these twomaterials makes the insoles soft and springy. Additionally, we covered them with a thin layer of cork,which has antiseptic properties. The cork prevents the foot from sweating and ensures very good air circulation.
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