We sat down with plant-based passionista and Founder and Creative Director of vegan shoe brand Sylven New York Casey Dworkin. During our conversation, we asked Casey for material recommendations on creating low-impact footwear.
Casey says, “As a concerned Earth citizen, I look for nature-based solutions when designing shoes. Exciting materials I’m using right now include coconut-husk insoles and 100% natural lactae hevea tree sap outsoles, to name a few.” Dworkin also mentions innovative material use for uppers: “I work with the materials, as opposed to against them. That means, for some of the materials, such as apple leather and cork, which don’t have a good deal of stretch, I add more seams to the body of the shoe style.
