By Matt Bagwell, Co-founder of Seven Feet Apart
Ever had to pack so many shoes in your suitcase that you’ve struggled to fit everything else in? Shoes for meetings, for exploring the city, for a relaxed dinner, an evening event with clients… so many activities, so many different shoes required.
Well, we’ve set out to solve that problem – with a new shoe, called Flite, from Seven Feet Apart. I like my shoes to be comfy, but I also like them to work with a variety of outfits (business to casual), and they have to be lightweight and easy to pack.
Flite is designed to be a hybrid shoe ideal for both business and casual wear. It is also sustainable; the entire range is vegan, made of recycled plastic fibre, and is the first sneaker to have an eco-friendly sole made from sugarcane.
But it’s not just about making the shoe itself sustainable. It’s also about the packaging. Millions of unwanted shoe boxes end up in landfill every year, so the Flite comes in a multi-use packing cube. This cube is used to deliver the shoe, pack the shoe, and store the shoe – so no more single-use shoe boxes.
Flite came about for two reasons; I wanted a shoe that did everything I needed, and customer feedback showed that I was not alone. Footwear is apparently the bane of many travellers’ lives; 73.88% of the respondents to the SFA Travel Survey 2019 said that weight was important when they pack, with 49% admitting they pack things they don’t use and 36% saying they take too many shoes. The message was clear; people want to buy shoes that perform in different contexts, to carry less weight and they want packing to be easy.
So, Seven Feet Apart has engineered a product that dispenses with the need for lots of different shoes, instead taking one shoe that is lightweight, packable and flexible in style.
I love to travel and the lighter the better. For me that means both the weight of my suitcase and the impact of my journey – which is why sustainability is so important.
To be among the first to own a pair of Flite sneakers from Seven Feet Apart, see this page on Kickstarter
Matt Bagwell is co-founder of Seven Feet Apart, a UK footwear brand, committed to being sustainable, kind and better; the sale every pair affords the preservation of 100ft2 of biodiverse, endangered land, in partnership with the World Land Trust.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.