Sneakers, originally made for 1860s croquet players, have transcended their primary utilitarian function to become the ultimate fashion status symbols influencing the way we move and physically feel. 

Most of us have multiple pairs of sneakers, each for different activities – everyday walking, running, hiking, etc. – activities that are supposed to make us feel good and look good. However, the average sneaker is releasing tiny particles containing toxic chemicals that are teratogens and carcinogens which reduce fertility and inhibit oxidizing properties of our cells. In other words, our sneakers are polluting our health and our planet.

Footwear is difficult to make sustainable because there are so many different materials and components in an average shoe. The good news is, the below top 12 brands are making strides to produce sneakers made from recycled and renewable materials, bringing us closer to a circular economy where sneakers aren’t rotting in landfills for 80 plus years.

Our Sustainability Rating System

The definition of sustainability is highly nuanced. For us, it simply means no waste was generated during the entire lifecycle of the sneaker. We selected the below ten brands based on:

1. Materials Used
2. Manufacturing Transparency
3. Circularity 
4. Style
5. Affordability 

Overall, the selected sustainable sneakers are made from either natural materials (wool, organic cotton, rubber) or upcycled/recycled materials (plastic bottles, old sneakers, etc). The materials used needed to have been sourced in a sustainable and ethical way. 

Top 12 Best Sustainable + Eco-Friendly Sneakers

1. BLUEVIEW

BLUEVIEW has created the world’s first biodegradable shoe, making them #1 on our list.

The revolutionary plant-based shoes are constructed of biodegradable materials and use an algae-based polyurethane foam that was invented by scientists at UCSD in La Jolla and took 5 years and $15 million in government grants to create. The result is a shoe that can biodegrade in compost, soil, and even the ocean.

BLUEVIEW is the future of footwear to help us repair our planet by keeping plastic pollution out of our oceans and waste out of our landfills. Everyone needs to own a pair of BLUEVIEW sneakers and the rest of the brands on this list need to use their petroleum-free foam.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • One piece knitted upper made from 100% plant-based (hemp and eucalyptus)yarns
  • Removable organic cotton canvas strap, can be worn as a loafer or a slip-on
  • Insole and cupsole foams are made from patented Soleic biodegradable* polyurethane formulation
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Transparent sourcing of materials used in their supply chain.
• Circularity
  • Yes! Biodegradable! Every component of the shoes biodegrades under aerobic composting conditions (ASTM D5338).
• Style
  • Rating: 10 / 10 (just remove the canvas strap)

Price Range | $135

Best For | Slip-ons, walking

2. THOUSAND FELL

Thousand Fell made the first-ever recycled or “circular” sneakers, making it the most sustainable sneaker brand on our list. With sneakers and slip-ons for all genders, the easygoing designs come with a variety of accent colors and some limited-edition styles. 

Thousand Fell’s mission is to never send another sneaker to landfill. The brand achieves this with their recycling program. When you’re finished with your sneakers, send them back to Thousand Fell so they can either refurbish them and donate them to someone in need, or reuse the raw materials for new sneakers.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • Thousand Fell turns coconut husk, sugar cane & recycled bottles into sneakers.
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Designed in NYC and made in Brazil. 
  • Transparent sourcing of materials used in their supply chain.
• Circularity
  • Once you’re done with your sneakers, you can give them back to Thousand Fell to receive $20 credit—and the team will recycle them into new shoes. 
• Style
  • Rating: 9 / 10

Price Range | $120

Best For | Everyday, slip-ons, walking

3. VEJA

VEJA’s trademark V has been seen on the top celebrities, British royalty, and fashion influencers. The brand’s sneakers are designed in Paris, France with eco-friendly materials, including wild rubber from the Amazon and organic cotton. Despite their celebrity status, the brand claims they don’t invest in celebrity advertising budgets and instead pass those savings to consumers. 

With sleek and stylish options for men, women, and children, VEJA is a go-to for sustainably made sneakers.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • As of 2020, 85% of all VEJA materials used are considered environmentally ‘preferred’ raw materials; e.g. recycled PET, organic cotton, chrome-free leather, organic jute, natural rubber and recycled cotton.
• Packaging
  • VEJA’s shoeboxes are made of 60% recycled cardboard. The rest comes from virgin materials that are FSC certified.
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Fair trade, treat their Brazilian workers with respect.
  • Calculate carbon footprint of everything and report.
• Circularity 
  • Veja does not have an online program where you can send back their shoes. However, they recently opened a Paris store dedicated to recycling and refurbishing old Veja pairs. We hope to see more recycling/upcycling programs and sneakers from them in the near future. 
• Style
  • Rating: 10 / 10

Price Range | €62–€245

Best For | Everyday, Running

4. Allbirds 

Allbirds is dedicated to creating eco-friendly footwear made from entirely sustainable resources. The brand has an impressive plan to cut their footprint in half by 2025, and then reduce it to near zero by 2030. In the meantime, Allbirds is 100% carbon neutral and only uses natural renewable fabrics for their products.

These are by far the most comfortable sneakers on the list and Allbird’s commitment to regenerative agriculture, eco-friendly materials, recycled packaging and transparency is worth owning a pair.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • Upper & Lining: FSC-certified TENCEL™ Lyocell (eucalyptus tree fiber) upper; ZQ merino wool heel lining that’s breathable, temperature-regulating, and moisture-wicking
  • Midsole: Renewable SweetFoam® made with sugarcane-based green EVA
  • Laces: Made with recycled plastic bottles
  • Laces Eyelets: Bio-based TPU

• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • WRAP-certified factories.
  • Calculate the carbon footprint of everything and report.
• Circularity
  • From our research, they are not currently resuing old shoes to make more shoes. However, they launched their Allbirds ReRun™ resale platform which allows customers to return their gently used shoes to Allbirds’ stores and receive a $20 store credit voucher in return. The shoes are sold with prices starting at $59 with the intent of extending the inevitable trip to the landfill. 
• Style
  • Rating: Depends if you like Silicon Valley vibes…

Price Range | $59–$145

Best For | Everyday/Slip-Ons, running

5. CARIUMA

Co-founders David and Fernando started Cariuma after feeling that major sneaker companies were producing uncomfortable sneakers that weren’t created in a sustainable or socially responsible way. They set out to provide stylish, comfy, colorful and consciously made shoes.

Cariuma uses only premium raw materials such as bamboo and organic cotton, in order to yield a smaller footprint when crafting their sneakers. The brand ensures that all of their factory workers make a comfortable, living wage and adhere to a manageable work week to ensure a healthy work/life balance.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • Upper & Lining: Perfect-fit Bamboo Knit (bamboo and recycled PET)
  • Insole: Removable lightweight memory foam + cork + Mamona oil 
  • Outsole: Green EVA made from sugarcane
  • Laces: Made with recycled plastics
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • No
• Circularity
  • No
• Style
  • Rating: 9 / 10, lots of colors

Price Range | $79+

Best For | Everyday/Slip-Ons, walking

6. CONVERSE RENEW

Converse, the all-American shoe manufacturer, launched ‘Renew’ sneakers as part of their commitment to a waste-less future. Converse’s Renew sneakers feature breathable, engineered stretch-knit uppers made from at least 50% recycled content, 100% recycled polyester laces, and translucent midsoles and outsoles made with recycled rubber scraps from the footwear manufacturing process.

Available in a variety of colors, if you love a classic Converse All Star, this is the perfect way to dip your toe into the pool of sustainable sneakers.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • Canvas upper made from at least 50% cotton and at least 50% recycled cotton
  • Crater Foam sole, made with about 12% recycled rubber scraps from the footwear manufacturing process.
  • 100% recycled polyester laces
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Not so much
• Circularity
  • No, but Converse is owned by Nike so we hope to see something official from them soon. 
• Style
  • Rating: 10 / 10

Price Range | $65+

Best For | Everyday/ Skating

7. ADIDAS PARLEY

In 2015, Adidas introduced the first ever running shoe made from upcycled plastic waste. Through their collaboration with the environmental organization Parley, they’ve intercepted plastic waste on beaches and coastal communities to use as materials.

As the trailblazer, Adidas Parley shoes symbolized change for the sneaker industry as a whole. Adidas has announced its goal to eliminate the use of virgin polyester in its products by 2024. 

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • The Adidas UltraBOOST line ranges of high-performance sneakers made of 95% Parley Ocean Plastic™ Primeknit upper, upcycling approximately 11 plastic bottles.
  • Continental™ Rubber natural rubber outsole made with minimum 30% FSC-certified natural rubber
  • Yarn in upper contains at least 50% Parley Ocean Plastic and 50% recycled polyester
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Not so much.
• Circularity
  • Adidas partners with ThredUp for their Give Back and Made to Be Remade program. Download the app to send your gear back and earn rewards. Whether Adidas will actually use old shoes and clothes to make more products is tbd… 
• Style
  • Rating: 10 / 10

Price Range | $190

Best For | Everyday/Slip-Ons, running

8. NIKE SPACE HIPPIE

Nike’s Move to Zero journey towards zero carbon and zero waste, is not only helping the future of sport, but also changing the entire industry. Nike is reusing plastics, yarns, and textiles, without compromising on performance, durability and style. 

The best part of Nike’s new moves is they are recycling/upcycling athletic shoes at the end of their life, giving them a new life through Nike Grind. We hope this behemoth of an athletic brand continues to usher in the circular economy because they certainly have the power to do so. Our current favorite sustainable sneaker is their Space Hippie, if you can stand the style. 😉

Sustainable Features

• Materials
  • The Space Hippie is trash transformed made from recycled plastic bottles, t-shirts and yarn scraps and made of at least 25% recycled material by weight. 
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Not so much on transparent manufacturing. 
• Circularity
  • Yes! Nike will recycle athletic shoes at the end of their life, giving them a new life through Nike Grind. They have launched both their Nike Refurbished and Nike Recycle Shoes programs at select stores.
• Style
  • Rating: Subjective

Price Range | $130

Best For | Everyday, Running/Exercising

9. SUPERGA ORGANIC COLLECTION

The Italian brand Superga, arguably made famous by Princess Diana during her 1997 trip to the landmines in Angola while wearing the Superga 2750 Cotu Classics, recently launched an organics collection with Hailey Beiber as their star. 

The line debuts with three classic styles— where each sneaker’s upper is made with a blend of 60% organic cotton and 40% natural hemp. It’s a great starting step for this iconic brand.

Sustainable Features

• Materials
  • 60% organic cotton / 40% natural hemp upper, sewn with 100% organic thread.
  • Eyelets and shoelaces are constructed with organic cotton.
  • Natural cork insole and a 50% recycled rubber sole.
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Not so much on their site…but a press release stated that the eyelets and shoelaces are constructed with organic cotton sourced in Vietnam.
  • The rubber sole is sourced from the rubber tree forests of Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.
• Circularity
  • No current take-back or recycling program.
• Style
  • Rating: 9 / 10; Simple + Classic

Price Range | $85-$99

Best For | Everyday, Running/Exercising

10. [REE]CYCLED BY REEBOK

Reebok is focusing sustainability efforts under two pillars: [REE]GROW, which focuses on the creation of products from natural materials; and [REE]CYCLED, which focuses on creating products using recycled or repurposed materials. Reebok also committed to reducing virgin polyester from its material mix and eliminating it altogether by 2024.

Not only do the sneakers boast vintage curb appeal, but they’re made from materials with a minimum of 50% recycled content. It’s a running start for this goliath athletic brand — we hope they’re in it for the marathon.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • [REE]GROW sneakers are made of castor bean midsoles, BLOOM algae sockliner, Eucalyptus and natural rubber soles.
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Not so much…
• Circularity
  • No current take-back or recycling program.
• Style
  • Rating: 9 / 10; Simple + Classic

Price Range | $80–$135

Best For | Everyday, Running/Exercising

11. EVERLANE TREAD

Everlane’s mission is to make the world’s lowest-impact sneakers, make them last, make them carbon neutral, and never stop pushing to make them better. They’ve done just that with their Tread sneaker collection.

The sneaker’s sole, for example, is made of recycled rubber, and its laces and insoles from recycled plastic, but just to take it one step further, Everlane is even tracking the Tread’s carbon footprint, starting with the actual cattle farms it sources the shoe’s leather upper from.

The company also announced the launch of ReNew, a game-changing initiative to eliminate all virgin plastic from their supply chain by 2021.

Sustainable Features

• Materials
  • Full-grain leather is produced at a gold-certified tannery.
  • Shoe soles are recycled and natural rubber, keeping 18,000 pounds of rubber out of landfills—and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 54%.
  • Laces and insoles are made of both virgin and recycled plastic.
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Everlane is the godfather of supply chain transparency.
  • Gold Certified Leather Tanning Manufacturing.
• Circularity
  • No current take-back or recycling program.
• Style
  • Rating: 9 / 10; Simple + Classic

Price Range | $60-$110

Best For | Everyday/Slip-Ons

12. SAUCONY JAZZ COURT

Saucony is minimizing its footprint by aiming to use up to 100% recycled content for performance upper textiles, collar linings, and shoelaces, and starting in Autumn 2021, every new performance Saucony will include recycled content.

The new Jazz Court RFG is made with only seven renewable, eco-friendly materials and has itself been a study in sustainable design and manufacturing.

Sustainable Features:

• Materials
  • The Jazz Court RFG is made of: Cotton, jute, wool, rubber, wood, gardenia, and beet.
  • Dyed: Natural plant dyes 
  • Rubber Sole: We sourced 100% Lactae Hevea (milk from the rubber plant).
• Manufacturing + Transparency
  • Members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition 
• Circularity
  • No current take-back or recycling program.
• Style
  • Rating: 10 / 10; Classics

Price Range | $130

Best For | Everyday, walking

All products featured on Illuminate are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.