Sorbas Shoes

Berlin-based designer Eike Vogler didn’t always envision himself operating in the footwear space, but may our feet – and the planet - prize ourselves lucky he did. In the search for a project, in which Eike could implement sustainable changes from the off-set and involuntarily act as a trailblazer for eco-conscious change, Sorbas Shoes was born.  

We can trace the early beginnings of Sorbas Shoes  back to Italy. Surprisingly, not in their history of leather manipulation or sophisticated footwear, instead we fix our gaze on old Italian boats. “I first got enamoured with the idea of sustainable design through boats, specifically the old Italian Riva. This is a elegant wooden jet-set boat of the 1950s, with a very distinct and refined shape. The design inspired me to start thinking of ways to redesign more sustainably. Yet one day, I was admiring a pair of designer shoes and saw particular similarities in shape, construction and composition. And so, I started designing shoes, arguably easier to make than a boat,” adds Eike.

The timeless design of Sorbas Shoes is only one pillar that makes up the German label. The second one, the root of this endeavour in the first place, is the value placed on sustainability in every sense of the term. “Sustainability is something that has always been part of my life; from personal choices to areas of research and prior work for small NGOs,” says Eike. Sorbas Shoes implement sustainability at the core of everything they do from the workforces they partner with, to the distribution of their product and the materials used, leading to a whopping up to 71% reduction of their carbon footprint.