8 Eco-Friendly Sustainable Slippers for Eco-Chilling
Do you ever need simple footwear to slip on when taking it easy at home? Or maybe something warm, apart from socks, to warm your feet up on a cold day? Slippers are extremely comfortable and versatile, and there are loads of options to choose from, including eco-friendly slippers made from sustainably sourced materials.
However, have you considered the impact of your footwear on the environment? The UK's population throws away over 300 million pairs of shoes yearly. A large percentage of these end up in landfills, thereby contributing to pollution.
As you've guessed, your slippers may not be as innocent as they look. In this article, we share some of our best choices for eco-friendly slippers made by eco-conscious, sustainable footwear brands. These products are stylish, comfortable, and, best of all, kind to the people and the planet.
The Environmental Impact of the Footwear Industry
Whereas shoes make up an important part of our wardrobes, the footwear industry contributes to waste in many ways. The manufacturing process is energy-intensive, and the disposal process raises questions.
When the world prioritizes unsustainable production and consumption patterns, it significantly generates waste.
Moreover, the demand for fashionable items that are in line with certain trends leads to the overproduction of products. Manufacturers can produce shoes using a vast number of materials. However, some prominent ones show up more times than others.
A typical shoe will most likely primarily consist of materials like leather, polyurethane, thermoplastic rubber, and ethylene-vinyl acetate. Many of these are synthetic, and even with leather, the industry is often under scrutiny for its environmental impact1.
Besides the environmental challenge, labor practices are also a source of concern. As a result, many brands are also prioritizing ethical slippers or shoes.
8 Best Sustainable Slippers You Should Try
Sustainable slippers contain natural materials, many of which follow fair trade practices. If you're looking for comfortable slip-on house shoes or just something you can easily wear to relax today, you'll find a growing number of eco-friendly slippers on the market.
Unlike conventional slippers, eco-friendly slippers have less environmental impact throughout their life cycle and lifespan.
Sustainable slipper brands choose responsibly sourced materials, from environmentally friendly natural organic fibers to recycled polyester. Toward the end of their useful life, they consider natural biodegradable materials.
Read on for some of the best choices for lazing around the home, chilling out in front of the fire on a non-toxic rug, or relaxing with a good sustainable living book.
Have a browse of our favorite sustainable slipper brands for some cozy time relaxing.
1. Bure Bure
There's a common misconception that sustainable products only come in bland colors. Bure Bure is debunking this by offering a wide range of slippers to support your sustainable living journey.
Whether you want a natural color, a solid color, or a color mix, Bure Bure offers variety to elevate your slipper collection instantly.
Cozy colors and natural wool
Furthermore, Bure Bure offers slippers for every member of the family. You can choose from styles like slides, slip-on pieces, boots, and clogs. The insulation of wool fibers in each pair of slippers helps your feet stay warm or cool, depending on the weather.
If you're looking to buy sustainable slippers with color bursts, you might want to try Bure Bure's slippers collection.
For a non-slip effect, the brand uses natural latex cushioned soles. It also offers slippers with a rubber or suede sole.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
The brand makes its sustainable wool slippers in Lithuania. All the slippers are made from eco-friendly materials that the owner sources sustainably.
The manufacturers use natural felted wool from their sheep farm. If you have irritable skin, Bure Bure uses only organic soap for washing and preparing its wool.
2. Kyrgies
Kyrgies is another brand that provides sustainable and ethical slippers appealing to all ages.
The brand's original style, the low-back classic slippers, features felt soles. Other versions feature chrome-free leather soles, with some versions implementing arch support.
Unlike some wool-based slip-on pieces, Kyrgies specifically mentions that its products are for indoor purposes. The brand's slippers are ideal for easy slip-on home use, making them a perfect natural lifestyle choice.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
The brand's wool-based slippers come in various solid colors like grey, orange, and purple, all colored with low-impact dyes to reduce their environmental impact. During processing, the manufacturers use water and natural soap to wash the felted wool.
Kyrgies' eco-friendly house slippers and shoes go through traditional felting techniques. Local artisans in Kyrgyzstan make these stylish numbers by hand. Furthermore, this brand employs women artisans in places where they have limited opportunities.
From its sustainable materials, traditional techniques, and artisan support to being climate-neutral certified, Kyrgies is an all-around ethical brand with a minimal carbon footprint.
3. Baabuk
From a certified B-Corp, you can enjoy these ethical and sustainable comfy slippers throughout all seasons. Each comfy pair of Baabuk slippers is odor-resistant and will keep your feet feeling fresh. Baabuk slippers have a natural rubber sole rather than more commonplace plastic or synthetics.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
Baabuk uses an eco-friendly production process to create its signature hand-felted wool slippers. The Baabuk slippers are designed in Switzerland and handmade in the company's factory in Nepal.
Helping to address the vast opportunities that favor men in Nepal, Baabuk employs a large number of women artisans. So, you're not only protecting the environment but also supporting employment opportunities for women when you shop from them.
From the process of acquiring raw sheep wool, the company ensures that the animals are properly cared for. Baabuk sources its natural wool from New Zealand due to the eco-friendly washing process.
The procedure the farmers use for the soap and water washing process is eco-friendly. To avoid polluting the local rivers, the farmers recycle the water. This way, you're certain that these natural wool slippers are made from sustainable materials and a process that supports zero waste.
Looking for more than one color? Baabuk offers a variety of colors for its New Zealand ethical wool environmentally-friendly slippers.
4. Chilote House Shoes
Looking for cute and cozy house shoes or slippers to keep your feet warm? You might want to have a look at Chilote's range. The ethical and sustainable brand uses eco-friendly materials to craft its products.
Chilote's raw wool slippers mimic the shape of the feet and reveal a thick slipper socks design.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
Rather than prioritizing producing in factories, the brand works with independent women artisans. Through these partnerships, they follow fair labor practices and ensure fair wages.
Each pair of sustainable slippers goes through a slow production process before the brand achieves the final item. Chilote offers toddler slippers as well.
Chilote makes their range of adult products from salmon leather, organic leather and wool, and raw wool.
Upcycled vegetable salmon leather features elsewhere in their lines, while their organic leather slippers are vegetable-tanned leather, a better alternative to chromium tanning.
What makes Chilote unique is that each pair of handmade slippers comes with a QR code. The purpose of the code is to allow you to track the source of your product. Chilote incorporates fair labor practices in addition to ensuring an eco-friendly production and supply chain.
The ultimate result is fair trade and ethical labor practices in producing cozy slippers, from the sourcing down to the design and supply chain.
5. Muffle-Up! Classic Slippers
Muffle-Up! makes fun-looking wool slippers that look like giant plush socks. This Canadian company is not afraid to create and release sustainable house shoes in funky styles and color mixtures.
This company designs and offers various styles to choose from, such as ankle-high slippers, demi boots, and mid-calf boots. Besides the sustainable slippers for adults, the brand also offers options for babies and toddlers.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
Muffle-Up! is all about reclaiming and repurposing materials to avoid waste. The brand uses merino wool yarn, upcycled leather, and recycled sheep wool linings.
Each pair of Muffle-Up! sustainable slippers are locally made in Canada. The handmade slippers consist of a combination of recycled and natural materials that provide comfort. The artisans crotchet the classic slippers in a way that provides comfort to the feet.
The natural materials of the slippers ensure that your feet stay comfortable without feeling hot and icky. If you're worried about itching, the non-itch merino wool takes care of that.
To prevent overproduction, Muffle-Up! makes all its products to order. This ensures that they do not contribute to the waste we associate with the footwear industry.
6. Toast
Toast creates women's slippers using natural materials and fair trade principles. This brand offers a range of sustainable slippers with hand-felted sheep's wool, vegetable-tanned sheepskin, or jute.
Also, you can either decide whether to wear your slippers within the house or outside. Toast designs its slippers to support coziness, comfort, and warmth. Once you slip your feet into these sustainable slippers, you're sure to feel a sense of calm and relaxation and cozy feet.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
Toast uses natural rubber for the soles, and their natural felted wool slippers feature a suede sole.
For any product that contains leather, the company uses only leather, which is a by-product of the meat industry. On their site, you have the option to choose from different colors and styles, like slip-on and slipper boots.
Toast collaborates with various artisans worldwide, and its production and supply chain follow fair trade principles. This is probably why the brand has long-lasting relationships with many of its artisans.
To ensure an ethical and sustainable chain of production, Toast shares its ethical policies with its suppliers. By working closely with these suppliers, they ensure that they tackle problems that may arise firsthand.
Packaging is a major waste generator, so to curb this, Toast uses biodegradable and recyclable materials. Toast offers one of the best fair trade slippers on the market.
Keep your feet cozy and do a little bit for the environment by choosing their wool loungers.
7. Intoa Design
Intoa Design has taken innovation to a whole new level through its slippers. This brand sources, repurposes, and transforms old pieces of denim into something new.
Intoa Design's products are quirky and come in various styles and designs. For durability, the brand owner includes two leather patches on the sole. However, you have the option to customize your order to your taste.
If you love being barefoot or just enjoy the feeling of your feet flat on the ground, these are for you.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
The brand uses materials like old jeans, fair trade blankets, rugs, and other discarded clothing. This is one of the best eco-friendly slippers simply for its principle of giving old items new lives.
Since they make their slippers from old materials, the brand helps divert old clothing from landfills. This significantly helps to curb the waste we associate with the clothing and fashion industry.
Although Intoa Design mainly uses recycled materials like jeans for the outer part, the brand also lines the slippers. For the inner lining, you can choose from either recycled felted wool or terry.
The brand's philosophy is to transform used materials into practical, beautiful, and durable products. From recycled used clothing to pieces using recycled wool, Intoa Design is all about giving second chances.
8. Rawganique
If you're looking for all-natural vegan slippers, you should try Rawganique's range. The brand's classic 'Tchaikovsky' glue-free slippers are made from 100% organic cotton.
The initial design features an elastic band, while a subsequent similar design comes without the band. This gives you the chance to select the fit you prefer. For extra padding, the brand uses various layers of organic cotton fleece inside the slippers.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness
Rawganique doesn't use synthetic fibers for its products, and everything is chemical-free, which makes them ideal for people with sensitive skin or chemical allergies.
Rawganique's organic cotton slippers are natural, undyed, and unbleached. You should note that they aren't waterproof, so be sure to keep them dry as much as possible.
Apart from cotton material, this company also uses natural materials like hemp and linen. Its products are biodegradable, natural, and eco-friendly. These all-natural cotton slippers are soft, cozy, and easy to put on.
Conclusion
When shopping for sustainable swaps, it's important to consider your footwear. Your slippers may not be the first thing that comes to mind, yet all of our choices have a role in our sustainable lifestyle.
Unsustainable manufacturing and consumption processes significantly affect the environment. Also, they negatively impact the people working behind the scenes to produce products for our comfort and wear.
Despite popular belief, you can be eco-friendly while owning stylish items. And the same goes when it comes to your slippers.
Whether you're looking for house shoes, winter slip-on pieces, or something you can wear outdoors, eco-friendly brands offer various options. Use this list as your guide to eco-friendly slipper shopping.
| 1 | Staikos, T., Heath, R., Haworth, B., & Rahimifard, S. (2006, May). End-of-life management of shoes and the role of biodegradable materials. In Proceedings of 13th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (pp. 497-502) |
Jen’s a passionate environmentalist and sustainability expert. With a science degree from Babcock University Jen loves applying her research skills to craft editorial that connects with our global changemaker and readership audiences centered around topics including zero waste, sustainability, climate change, and biodiversity.
Elsewhere Jen’s interests include the role that future technology and data have in helping us solve some of the planet’s biggest challenges.
