SURFACE PROJECT: FROM WASTE TO WONDERFUL

Surface Project is founded on a dream of making a difference in the world. A dream of transforming our huge plastic crisis into beautiful footwear. We combine a passion for beautiful, high-quality shoes with deep care for the planet and a mission to contribute to clean up our planet and our oceans.

That’s why we make shoes from waste – plastic waste to be specific.

The name Surface Project stems from the aspiration to contribute to cleaning our oceans. We transform these waste products into beautiful, high-quality shoes that make you look and feel amazing. Our shoes are made from recycled and upcycled ocean plastic, post-consumer plastic, and reclaimed natural ingredients.

(We’ll let you in on a secret – high-quality isn’t always leather. Our shoes are not only refined and durable, they’re vegan as well).

We aspire to show the world how to transform waste to wonderful.

Cleaning up our oceans one shoe at a time

Plastic accumulating in our oceans and on land has become a global crisis. Every piece of plastic ever made still exists and it’s not going away any time soon. It’s estimated that there are somewhere between 15–51 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans alone. This is why we’re on a mission of pulling plastic out of the oceans and reusing it for some purposeful. Besides ocean plastic, we also reuse post-consumer plastic and various other types of plastic waste.

It’s no secret that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. At Surface Project, we want to contribute to making the shoe industry just a little bit greener. This is why we make shoes at affordable prices. Everyone should be able to contribute to rescuing our planet and look amazing while doing it.

Making sustainable fashion transparent

Surface Project was originally based on a dream of being a 100% sustainable brand. Today, we’ve realized that just isn’t possible. The truth is that fashion will never be completely sustainable – you’d have to grow shoes in your backyard. Even though no brand can ever be 100% sustainable, we aspire to come as close as possible.

This is why we only work with GRS certified, recycled, and upcycled biodegradable DMF-free materials such as pre/post-consumer waste and certified suppliers. Our materials aren’t treated with any chemicals or died with harmful ingredients. We make sure that all our products are manufactured and handled with care for people and the environment by having an ongoing dialogue with and surveys of our suppliers. One of our measures is yearly unannounced SEDEX SMETA audits evaluating standards of labor, health and safety, environmental performance, and ethics within operations.

Our materials are produced at Poveda Textil in Spain – a factory that compensates for 100% of their carbon emissions with Refo-RestaCO2 reforestation projects in Spain. Our shoes are hand-made at Penta Shoes in Spain and transported from there by truck with courier ALPI DK which compensates for 100% of their emissions with projects such as CEMAsys planting mangrove trees in Myanmar.

This is how we at Surface Project commit to making the world greener, our oceans cleaner, and our future brighter one shoe at a time.