Genesis - Sustainable sneakers for a green footprint

GENESIS

Good to know

GENESIS Footwear was founded in 2019 and is one of the most sustainable brands in the field of green fashion . The sneakers are made with the greatest possible proportion of recycled, sustainable and environmentally friendly materials. The components of the GENESIS sneakers are made from upcycled military duffel bags, vegan leather made from pineapple leaves, pure banana paper leather, recycled yarn, vegan leather made from cacti, insoles made from recycled EVA foam and much more. The sneaker boxes, for example, are made from 100% recycled cardboard, no glue is used and they are printed with water-soluble paint.

The brand stands especially for attention to detail, but most of all for love for our planet and appreciation for all people. GENESIS Footwear has unique sneakers that are not only modern and stylish, but also have a positive impact on the environment. With a purchased GENESIS sneakers symbolize responsibility for yourself, for other people and for nature...

GENESIS ensure that all sneakers are 100% handmade in a selected and thoroughly checked factory that meets the international Standards of the BSCI Code of Ethics Each pair GENESIS Sneakers are unique and handmade shoes made with a passion for fashion and sustainability.

Due to innovative materials from natural sources as well as handmade production in small batches, each pair may have its own irregularities, making them even more unique. Buying GENESIS sneakers is more than just buying a pair of shoes. It also supports our planet and small, family-owned ecological businesses, which is at the core of the GENESIS founding idea of ​​fair trade and sustainability.

What do all Genesis shoes have in common?

Insoles made from recycled EVA foam

Cork soles made from sustainable resources

Shoelaces made from recycled plastic bottles

Seams made from recycled plastic bottles

Insole made of banana paper and cellulose

Inner lining made with GOTS certified, environmentally friendly organic cotton fibers and banana leaf fibers

Outsole made from at least 40% natural rubber (sustainable from Vietnam)

Manufactured by a BSCI CODE OF ETHICS Fairtrade certified supplier

philosophy

GENESIS' vision was to create a sneaker label that is characterized by a love of sneakers and sneaker design, an eye for detail and especially the use of sustainable materials and material mixes. The goal is to develop a sneaker that contains the greatest possible proportion of recycled, sustainable and environmentally friendly materials and to do so at the highest level that is currently possible. With the aim of constantly improving it and taking it to the next level.

The guys from GENESIS travelled almost all over the world to search for special materials for their Sneakers They visited plantations and manufacturers to find out about most environmentally friendly building blocks to look for products that are produced under humane conditions.

In all areas of life, the protection of the environment and sustainable production is becoming increasingly important. As a brand, GENESIS wants to stand up against many of the ecologically irresponsible and inhumane practices of the fashion industry. Therefore, it is a matter of course for us to express our position on the environment by selecting our particularly sustainable materials. We are happy to contribute to this positive and urgently needed development through our Sneaker collection a contribution.

Our sneakers and all materials are manufactured in factories where Sustainability , Expertise and human dignity have priority. Through this approach and with every sneaker sold, we strengthen these companies and the idea behind them.

engagement

GENESIS donates a portion of its profits to causes and organizations that GENESIS believes in and that share the same standards and spirit.

Sea Shepherd's Mission

Sea Shepherd is an international non-profit organization for Protection of marine animals and their habitats . Their mission is to end the destruction of habitats and the slaughter of animals in the world's oceans in order to sustainably protect and preserve ecosystems and species.

Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct action tactics to investigate, document and intervene when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By protecting the biodiversity of our delicately balanced ecosystems, Sea Shepherd helps ensure they are preserved for future generations.

Sea Shepherd was founded in 1977 by Captain Paul Watson. Since then, Sea Shepherd has grown into a worldwide movement with independent national and regional groups in over 20 countries. These groups are united by a common mission and are coordinated by Sea Shepherd Global, as are finances, communications, logistics and a fleet of ten ships.

Surf Rider Foundation

Thirty-four years ago, a group of surfers from Malibu and California were concerned about the health risks associated with environmental threats. Coastal development at their favorite surf spot was escalating and they decided to take action. Little did the group know then what kind of history they would make. They succeeded in protecting their beloved surf spot.

Since its founding in 1984, the Surfrider Foundation has become one of the largest non-profit grassroots organization with a large network of volunteers and activists. They have set themselves the task of protecting the oceans, waves and beaches of the world. Today it is a strong organization, with more power and movement than ever before.

They have 82 sections, including 86 student clubs and more than 1 million supporters, volunteers and activists fighting in over 100 active campaigns across the country. Their coastal defense model achieved a record 500 victories in 2006.

The long-term success and growth of the Surfrider Foundation is a testament to the vision of its founders that fighting a battle for the environment may not be easy, but with constant pressure and endless dedication, it can be won.

One Earth - One Ocean EV

Every year, more than 10 million tons of garbage end up in the world's oceans, up to 80 percent of which originates from land, and about three quarters of it is plastic. There are already more than 150 million tons of plastic waste in the world's oceans. According to UN studies, by 2050 the weight of plastic waste could exceed that of fish in the world's oceans.

Plastic waste has a lifespan of up to 450 years and ultimately enters our food chain as microplastics (tiny particles) when fish eat them. This means that plastic in the oceans not only harms the fragile ecosystem, but also us humans in particular. Everyone should now be aware of the urgency of solving the problem of plastic waste in the oceans.

One Earth - One Ocean eV aims to Waters worldwide with special collection vessels for plastic waste, oil and chemicals The multi-stage concept of “maritime waste disposal” envisages collecting plastic waste with specially designed waste collection ships and then recycling it or converting it into oil.

materials

Mesh made from oyster shells

For the mesh material of the G-Iduna Oyster model, GENESIS uses a yarn that is made largely from oyster shells. The oysters are ground to powder size, liquefied and only a small part mixed with a binding agent.

Yarns can be made from this raw material. Oyster shells are an underestimated waste problem because they do not rot. In Taiwan alone, more than 160,000 tons are produced annually. Although some of the oyster shells are used as soil amendments or food pellets for livestock, the problem has not been solved because the nutritional value is very low. Oyster shells, which are processed into yarn and thus into textiles or shoes, are beneficial to human health.

Upcycled military duffel bags

The GENESIS G-Soley Dufflebag is the first sneaker made from upcycled military duffel bags. Upcycling is the other side of the recycling process. Recycling means converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating another, new material. In contrast to upcycling, where you leave old products in their original state, do not change the nature of the material and create a new product from it. You give the original a new and better value.

Vegan leather made from pineapple leaves

Parts of some GENESIS sneakers are made with Piñatex® An innovative natural textile made from pineapple leaf fibers. The leaves are the byproduct of existing agriculture that has been left behind as waste. Piñatex® is a natural, sustainably produced and vegan material. This vegan leather made from pineapple leaf fibers, which is an agricultural waste product, offers the opportunity to create an additional income stream for farming communities with minimal environmental impact.

Eco-friendly Vegan Leather

Some GENESIS models use high-quality synthetic leather with a suede look. The basis of this vegan leather is a microfiber fleece made from recycled polyester, conventional polyester and polyurethane.

The difference to other artificial leathers is the raw material used, as well as the production process; through a special processing process, toxic chemicals such as DMF or carbon can no longer remain in the material.

Only vegan solvents are added and industrial pollution (waste, water and exhaust air) is controlled according to strict guidelines and carbon is also drastically reduced. The manufacturing process is complex and time-consuming, the material is as expensive as it is high quality and cannot offer any price advantage over leather.

The artificial leather feels soft, is antistatic, durable, easy to clean, breathable, elastic, non-allergenic and can be stretched easily without wrinkles. Compared to leather, microfiber leather is more breathable, non-slip and, apart from any cleaning that may be required, easier to maintain.

For some time now, people have shared the stereotype that artificial leather is a cheap copy of animal skins and merely imitates them visually. GENESIS hopes that this new, high-quality microfiber leather will put artificial leather in a new light.

Vegan leather made from leaves

This vegan leather is a breathable material with leather-like properties. Since it is made from leaves, the material is eco-friendly. It was developed using elephant ear plants. This plant does not compete with food or fodder crops for land, it grows profusely on forest and river banks and grows all year round.

The leaves are simply collected, plants are not killed in the process. The goal was to create something that is vegan and sustainable while offering a unique quality product that stands for something bigger than just a cool shoe.

A vegan material with leather-like properties that breathes. The leaves are collected and dried in sustainable areas and reforestation farms and then sewn with organic cotton. Since each leaf is unique, similar to a fingerprint, the products always look different.

The reforestation farms produce oxygen and ensure a balanced ecological footprint. In addition, organic waste is composted and added to the soil as a source of nutrients to protect the biome, wildlife and waterways. This vegan leader of the elephant plant is the most innovative and environmentally friendly material ever created.

Handwoven Abaca Banana Canvas

The lining of all GENESIS sneakers is made of canvas, made from Natural fibers from the Abaca plant . The Abaca plant belongs to the banana family and originally comes from the Philippines. This is where our Abaca canvas is harvested, spun, refined and woven on traditional handlooms. A thoroughly eco-friendly product that does not require the use of motor-driven machines. Due to its salt water tolerance, it is very suitable for shoes and durable. It has a very high tear resistance (45 to 70 cN/tex) and is therefore also used for Manufacture of ship ropes used. To increase sustainability, recycled PET fibers (from plastic bottles) are added to the fibers.

Pure banana paper leather

For the insoles of the GENESIS sneakers, the so-called banana leather used. Between the inner sole and the outer sole of every shoe is the so-called insole, which serves to give the shoe stability. A stiff polyester fabric is used as standard.

GENESIS uses a handmade mat made from eco-friendly banana fibers, which are found in the large trunk of the banana tree. They give the tree strength so that it can hold its bananas! Banana fibers are strong and have been used for thousands of years, including on the islands of the South Pacific, to make and tie rope.

Unlike most fruit trees, banana trees only bear fruit once and must be cut down after harvest because they reproduce themselves from the base. The trees are usually left behind in the jungle as unwanted waste.

Now, on the island of Kosrae in the South Pacific, more than 75 local farmers earn additional income by selling their trees to companies like GENESIS. The fibers are naturally water-repellent. If it gets wet, just let it dry. Banana fibers are also flame-retardant and tear-resistant. With normal daily use and regular application of wax or another water-repellent agent, this product will last a long time! It is also recyclable.

Environmentally friendly leather

The leather for all GENESIS leather sneakers is ECO-Friendly tanned with minerals. The Difference between normal tanned leather and eco-friendly leather consists of the following points:

Minimizing environmentally hazardous substances during tanning. This includes tanning aids, solvents and washing aids.

Reduction of environmentally harmful processes and conditions during production. Cleaning of waste water, recovery of chemical additives. Economical use of energy and raw materials during production.

Safe and socially acceptable working conditions in the tannery.

Safe and socially acceptable working conditions in the production processes.

High-quality, biodegradable end product with the most natural finish possible. This conventional leather processing mainly uses non-toxic chromium salt III, which is even found in drinking water. Under certain circumstances, such as low-quality tanning agents and/or incorrect handling, chromium III can change into chromium IV, which is hazardous to health and can trigger allergies and even cause cancer. Every batch of leather used for GENESIS sneakers is subjected to rigorous testing to ensure that no chromium IV was created during the tanning process. The use of chromium salts leaves a worse ecological footprint, as so-called vegetable tanning uses significantly more raw materials, energy and water than our naturally tanned leather without chromium.

Naturally tanned leather also performs better when it comes to tear resistance or waterproofness.

Fibres from Philippine pineapple leaves

For the upper of the GENESIS sneakers, the label uses, among other things, Fabrics made from the fibers of the pineapple leaf . Pineapple leaf fibers are an agricultural waste product. The so-called pina fiber is an ingenious fabric made from the leaves of the Spanish red pineapple and is the finest of all Filipino handwoven fabrics. Pineapple fibers are ivory-white in color and are naturally shiny. This cloth is soft and fine and has a very light weight. It is also very durable. Since the PINATEX fabric is handmade by only a few weavers, it is very precious and rare, which also makes it a bit more expensive.

Recycled yarn

GENESIS uses “Petspun” although Mesh in the upper material , as well as for the Laces and seams . This recycled yarn is made from PET bottles. The material is called R-PET and has the advantage that no new plastic is produced for its manufacture, but rather already produced PET is melted down and processed into fabric.

One water bottle is enough for a pair of sneakers. Water bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which can be melted and rewoven to be recycled into the fabric, reducing waste in our environment and in landfills.

Petspun is sustainable because the reuse of PET saves around 59% of energy and oil and significantly reduces CO2 emissions by 32%. GENESIS uses mesh for the upper material, which is made from petspun, because it is particularly breathable and moisture-regulating.

RPET fibers and fabrics are made from 100% PET bottles to reduce the waste that could end up in the environment or landfills, while saving energy, reducing CO2 emissions and reducing the use of petrochemical materials.

Natural rubber from Malaysia

Rubber is a regenerative natural product. Each sole of the GENESIS sneakers consists of at least 40% natural rubber. For coloured soles, 10% recycled material is added to the natural rubber to Maximum sustainability to reach.

Natural rubber is made from latex, which comes out as plant milk when the rubber tree trunks are scratched. The collected liquid is coagulated by adding natural formic acid and then processed further. The rubber obtained is then washed and separated from the aqueous phase.

It is then pressed into sheets. To preserve them, these are then dried in the sun without smoke. GENESIS uses natural rubber from mixed cultures, as monocultures place one-sided strain on the soil.

Fish Leather Pirarucu

Fish skin, which is normally disposed of as a waste product, offers many benefits. For example, it is unmistakable due to its structure and is even more tear-resistant than cowhide. Fish skin is very strong and has water-resistant properties because it is so rich in oil. In addition, fish skin has an incomparably luxurious aesthetic with functional robustness.

The fish skins processed by GENESIS come from the Pirarucu, a freshwater fish native to the Amazon. It can grow up to 2 meters long and weigh 100 kg, and its multi-layered skins are correspondingly large. These endangered fish are bred in freshwater fish farms and are far less damaging to the environment than cattle farming, for example. The fish farms increase the Pirarucus population and provide the entire region with a stable and fair income. The further processing is exclusively plant-based. This means that the tanning process does not use any chromium at all.

Cork sole from sustainable sources

The top of the GENESIS insoles is always made of cork. For good reason, because the advantages of processing cork into insoles are both comfort and sustainability. The best-known use of cork is certainly the cork on a wine bottle. It allows the wine to breathe and at the same time prevents liquid from escaping.

The cork sole makes excellent use of these properties. In addition to being breathable and water-repellent, cork absorbs impact noise and, thanks to its thermal advantages, provides insulation against cold and heat. The product used is the waste from bottle cork production, which accounts for up to 75% of the annual production of 25 billion bottle corks.

GENESIS only uses cork bark from oak trees that are at least 25 to 40 years old. Only then can a maximum of 30% of the bark be removed before it can be peeled again every 9 to 12 years. If this frequency is not met or more than 30% is harvested, the tree is damaged and it threatens to dry out. The bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber) consists of around 40 million closely connected, dead cells per square centimeter. This makes it firm and elastic.

Insole made of recycled EVA foam

A sole made of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) provides particularly cushioning and is therefore gentle on the joints. EVA is a plastic similar to rubber, with very good thermal properties. The difference to conventional EVA is that our EVA is reassembled from leftovers, and differently recycled PET (from plastic bottles) is added in order to achieve the most environmentally friendly result possible.

Recycled inner shoe packaging

The inner shoe packaging for GENESIS sneakers consists of 100% recycled cardboard . The inner shoes get their shape only through water and heat. No glue or other chemicals are used. They are not printed.

Shoebox

All GENESIS sneaker boxes consist of 100% recycled cardboard . No glue is used. The boxes are constructed in such a way that they are given the necessary stability through a folding technique. To facilitate possible later recycling, the pair boxes are only printed with water-soluble ink.

All kinds of materials that Genesis uses in its shoes.

Mesh made from oyster shells

Upcycled military duffel bags

Vegan leather made from pineapple leaves

Eco-friendly Vegan Leather

Vegan leather made from leaves

Handwoven Abaca Banana Canvas

Pure banana paper leather

Environmentally friendly leather

Fibres from Philippine pineapple leaves

Recycled yarn

Natural rubber from Malaysia

Fish Leather Pirarucu

Cork sole from sustainable sources

Insole made of recycled EVA foam

Recycled inner shoe packaging

Recycled shoe packaging

Products at MOREBOARDS

Since spring 2021, the following Sneaker models from GENESIS new at MOREBOARDS stationary in one of our numerous shops spread across Austria or online at www.moreboards.com

G-Helá Pet-Mesh Cactus

The special features of the G-Helà Pet-Mesh-Cactus are the vegan cactus leather and the mesh fabric made from recycled yarn, which is obtained from R-Pet plastic bottles. The innovative design on the heel and the color accents on the side are stylish eye-catchers.

G-Helá Tumbled

Hela Tumbled looks trendy and timeless, is super comfortable and puts the finishing touch on any outfit. The GENESIS G-Helà Tumbled is your perfect and versatile daily sneaker. Made from sustainable recycled materials and featuring an extraordinary design, it is a real eye-catcher.

G-Soley

The slim-cut retro sneaker made of environmentally friendly leather is a must-have in every eco-friendly wardrobe and can be worn with any outfit. The innovative design of the heel gives the GENESIS G-Soley a timeless look and high wearing comfort. The insole is made of recycled EVA foam and cork and ensures a soft step and optimal wearing comfort.

G-Soley Cornwaist

The vegan G-Soley Cornwaist is a sporty, modern sneaker. The special feature of this model is its vegan leather made from grain waste. Thanks to its materials and cut, this sneaker is the ideal everyday companion and can be combined with any outfit. Its insole is made of recycled EVA foam, the midsole foam (Bloom) is made of 100% algae and together with the cork sole, this ensures optimal comfort.

G-Daily Aloha Zen

The G-Daily AlohaZen is a sporty vegan sneaker made from durable, waterproof fabric made purely from banana plants. Its great design on the tongue was inspired by the Artist Aloha to Zen created and fits perfectly with our logo on the side. This sneaker is unique and a real eye-catcher.

Around 140 million tons of plastic are floating in our waters worldwide and around six million more are added every year. Something has to change about this plastic soup as soon as possible. BUT... unfortunately the pollution of our seas is only a small part of the PROBLEM!!!