Every year, billions of synthetic shoe insole end-up in landfills. The vast majority of the footwear industry produces shoes in a linear way, without taking responsibility for the end of their product life cycle. That’s what David and Jeremy wanted to change with PRIMAL Soles. They have created a fully circular shoe insole made of cork: a comfort product that is landfill diverting, biodiversity uplifting, CO2 negative and infinitely recyclable. They know that, in the scale of the footwear industry, the impact of a start-up the size of theirs is a drop in the ocean. But that didn’t stop them from wanting to show the industry that a different approach is possible: one where nature conservation, biodiversity uplift and profit go hand in hand.
In January 2023, InTent crossed path with David and Jeremy, during the Financial Time Responsible Business Education award ceremony. We were inspired by their genuine can-do attitude to transform a polluting industry into a nature-positive one – one step at a time – starting from something as insignificant as a few shoe insoles, and putting nature first in a technology driven world.
One year after our first encounter with them, they’ve launched a second product (their PRIMAL Hotel Slipper), they’re raising funds to help replant 1000 ha of cork oak forest, and we are excited to share their story with you, as a short documentary.