“Climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.”

– The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

In the footwear industry, the largest sneaker brands have the biggest impact on people and the planet, and therefore have the greatest responsibility to change. However, they keep a large part of their operations hidden to not be held accountable for the consequences of their actions.

In the Fashion Transparency Index, Adidas, Converse, Nike, and Reebok only score 51% - 60%.

The two biggest sneaker brands hold over 50% of global sneakers' market share.

The top ten biggest sneaker brands control over 80% of global sneakers' market share.

THE IMPACT OF THE SNEAKER INDUSTRY ON PEOPLE & PLANET

  • Over-production

    In 2019, 66.6 million pairs of shoes were manufactured every single day – adding up to a total of over 24.3 billion pairs in one year!


  • Only 5% of shoes are sustainable

    The biggest sneak brands are dragging their feet with small incremental improvements. Despite their claims about becoming more sustainable, in 2022, only 5% of shoes were made sustainably.

  • Child & Forced Labour

    The largest sneaker producing countries are listed to be under a potential risk of forced labour (China) and child labour (Vietnam and Brazil) - ILAB 2020 report

  • Highly Polluting

    Most sneakers are made from petroleum-based materials, an exhaustible non-renewable resource that emits harmful greenhouse gasses, which are not only polluting, but also prevent the heat emitted by the earth to escape, causing global warming.

  • Extremely low wages

    A key group in shoe supply chains is homeworkers – people who work in their homes to assemble shoes for factories. It is estimated that there are 50 million homeworkers across South East Asia who earn under $8 per day as a family.

  • Eco-Toxic Practices

    Most leather sneakers are tanned with highly toxic chemicals. The Buriganga river that runs across the biggest tannery district in Bangladesh was declared biologically dead as no aquatic life could possibly survive in the highly contaminated water.

  • Poor working conditions

    Many workers in shoe factories work in extremely poor conditions with no fire escapes, ventilation & appropriate protective equipment.

  • Deforestation

    With roughly 50% of all leather products being shoes, there’s a direct correlation between chopping down rainforests & the sneakers on people’s feet. The biggest sneaker brands have multiple connections to an industry that props up Amazon deforestation.

  • Low life expectancy

    Workers in Bangladesh’s leather tanneries are found to have a 90% chance of dying by the age of fifty due to exposure to toxic chemicals.

  • Low recycling rate

    Experts estimate 90% of shoes are NOT recycled. Instead they end up in landfill where the component parts can last for over 100 years.

  • Waste & Landfill

    An estimated 22 billion pairs of shoes end up in landfill each year. That’s enough pairs to fill 44,000 olympic-sized swimming pools!

  • High carbon emissions

    The footwear industry produces over 280 billion kg of CO2 a year. That’s the equivalent of flying around the world 25 million times.

  • Kangaroo slaughter

    More than two million kangaroos are killed each year to make sports shoes & football boots. Nike, Adidas, Puma, Umbro & Copa all use ‘K-leather’ in their products.

It may seem that the big sneaker brands are doing enough to reduce their negative impact. This is because they spend millions on promoting their greenest products, but in reality, they are doing far too little to clean up their act. Despite being fully aware of the above facts, over 95% of sneakers are still being made using harmful practices.

This is why we are campaigning for a radical change

Click below to find out how you can take action and help drive positive change in the sneaker industry

Frank thoughts

Sven Segal shares his thoughts as an industry insider…