Here’s something we’ve all experienced at least once: You get out of the house, thinking what a relaxing day you’ll have while wandering around in the park. Sadly, things don’t usually go as planned and your walk turns into frustration: instead of enjoying the moment, you end up on a bench, trying to scrape off the chewing gum that got stubbornly stuck to your shoe’s sole. Annoying, isn’t it?
Such an experience is highly unpleasant but it does not affect you alone. Chewing gum suffocates the streets of the city, hurts animals, and squeezes millions of dollars from a country’s government. In Amsterdam alone, tons of gum end up on the capital city’s streets, making it the second most common litter after cigarettes.
How can the city of Amsterdam get rid of all this rubbish that affects its well-being? Dutch shoe label Explicit Wear and Iamsterdam organization have come up with a very creative (and comfy) solution to combat this problem. Helped by sustainability company Gumdrop and creative agency Publicis One Netherlands, the partners turned the useless into something useful. And chic!
The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area presents the Gumshoe, a new kind of footwear with soles made from recycled chewing gum. Extracted from the streets of Amsterdam, the ‘raw material’ was processed by Gumdrop’s team, who broke down the gum’s synthetic components. Then, the company molded the new element, known as the Gum-Tec, into the shoe’s sole, therefore creating the “world’s first shoe made from chewing gum.”
It takes just under 1 kilogram (or 2.2 pounds) of gum to make four pairs of these shoes. (Un)fortunately, the streets of Amsterdam are the playground of over 1.5 million kilograms of chewing gum, meaning that there is enough material to work with.
The sneakers, which were specially designed to raise awareness about gum litter issue, are available in both pink and black. The soles of both models not only look like gum but also smell like it. Plus, there is a map of Amsterdam embedded in the sole, so that city residents can leave a nice footprint wherever they walk (even if they step on a chewed gum). The limited-edition shoes are priced €199,95 (around $238) and should be available in June.
“The surprise effect of the Gumshoe is an important success factor in this campaign. Amsterdam Metropolitan Area wants to inspire enthusiasm for the beauty that the city has to offer. Adding additional rules and restrictions to reduce the chewing gum problem would be at odds with our mission,” explained Mischa Schreuder, Creative Director at Publicis One.
“That is why we are surprising and inspiring Amsterdammers with the Gumshoe. In addition to awareness, this creates sympathy and intrinsic motivation to solve the chewing gum problem. This way we bring about much more impact,” adds the creative director.
The sole is made from recycled rubber while the rest of the shoe is made from “premium matte leather.” So, is this initiative a green one? If you take into consideration the fact that some parts of the sneakers are made from recycled products, yes. On the other hand, using leather as an ‘ingredient’ makes us think that the campaign isn’t that eco-friendly after all.
For consumers who fight for animal welfare and are aware of the chemicals used to produce leather and the damage they cause to workers’ health, the new sneakers might be a questionable investment. That unless the designers look for other eco-friendly leather alternatives…
How about you? Would you wear these highly-colored shoes, or would you opt for a vegan footwear? Let us know by sharing your answer in the comment section below.