Nothing New Makes Good-Looking Sneakers With a Lot Less New Stuff

There’s nothing about a pair of Nothing New sneakers that immediately screams “sustainable shoe.”

And that may be one of the best things about them.

They look like sneakers you’d actually want to wear: clean silhouettes, classic low- and high-top styles, rich colors and materials that don’t ask you to sacrifice design for a better environmental story.

Look a little closer, though, and that story gets much more interesting.

Nothing New has built its footwear around a wonderfully simple idea: use as little new stuff as possible. Recycled plastic becomes canvas. Leather scraps get a second life as new uppers. Old shoes come back to the company instead of automatically heading to the trash.

The result is footwear designed to look good first — with a lot happening behind the scenes to make it better for the planet, too.

That’s why Nothing New is a Seeing Green Solutionist of the Day.

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Sneakers You’d Choose for the Sneakers

Nothing New’s collection has the familiar appeal of classic casual footwear rather than the sometimes-too-obvious aesthetic of an “eco shoe.”

Its canvas sneakers come in the low- and high-top silhouettes you’d expect, while other styles use suede and the company’s Beyond Leather material for a more elevated look. Across the collection, the emphasis is on clean lines, strong colors and sneakers meant to feel at home in an everyday wardrobe.

That’s an important part of Nothing New’s sustainability philosophy.

A greener product has a much better chance of making an impact when people want it because it’s a good product, not simply because it’s the environmentally responsible one. Nothing New describes its sweet spot as the intersection of beautiful design and sustainably developed materials — essentially trying to make the more sustainable choice the desirable choice.

Then comes the clever part: what those good-looking shoes are actually made from.

There’s a Reason It’s Called Nothing New

For its canvas sneakers, Nothing New developed what it calls Better Canvas, made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.

Each pair puts the equivalent of about 5.6 plastic water bottles back to work. Compared with traditional cotton canvas, the company says the material also saves more than 160 gallons of water per pair. And the material is Global Recycled Standard certified.

For sneakers that would traditionally use leather, the company takes a different waste stream and gives it another life.

Its Beyond Leather™ is made using leather scraps and offcuts from tanneries — material that otherwise could become waste — and reengineers them into an upper designed to have the soft, supple feel people expect from leather.

According to Nothing New, producing Beyond Leather cuts both water use and carbon footprint by more than 80% compared with conventional leather production.

The brand also uses chrome-free suede, avoiding the chromium commonly used in conventional leather tanning.

In other words, “Nothing New” isn’t just a clever name. It’s a design brief.

Even the Way They’re Put Together Is Different

Materials are only part of a shoe’s story.

Most mass-market sneakers rely heavily on adhesives or vulcanization to bond the upper to the sole. Nothing New instead uses what it calls True Stitch construction, stitching the outsole directly to the upper.

It’s a more labor-intensive approach, but one designed to create a strong, flexible bond while eliminating the chemical-heavy glues used in cemented construction and the sulfur emissions associated with vulcanization.

There’s another sustainability benefit that’s much less complicated: durability. A shoe that stays in your closet and on your feet longer is a shoe you don’t have to replace as quickly.

When Your Sneakers Are Finally Done, Send Them Back

Of course, no sneaker lasts forever.

And this may be where Nothing New’s approach gets particularly interesting.

Through its Virtuous Circle program, customers can send worn Nothing New shoes back to the company for free and receive $20 toward another pair.

What happens next depends on the shoes.

Pairs that still have useful life can be donated. Those that are truly worn out can be disassembled so materials such as canvas, rubber and laces can be separated and, where possible, put back into the supply chain.

It’s an attempt to tackle a problem most of us probably don’t think much about when buying shoes: eventually, almost every pair becomes waste.

Nothing New would rather make that ending a circle.

Looking Beyond the Shoe

The company also accounts for emissions associated with sourcing, manufacturing, shipping, warehousing and its operations through lifecycle assessment and purchases verified carbon offsets intended to address those emissions. Its stated goal is to neutralize more emissions than its operations create.

That’s part of a broader philosophy that looks beyond any single recycled material or environmental claim. Nothing New is trying to think about the sneaker across its life — what goes into it, how it’s constructed, how long it lasts and what happens when you’re finally finished wearing it.

A Better Sneaker Doesn’t Have to Look Like One

There’s a larger idea here that goes well beyond footwear.

For cleaner, greener products to become everyday products, they need to compete on the things consumers already care about: how they look, how they feel, how well they work and whether they’re worth buying.

Nothing New seems to understand that.

You don’t have to wear these sneakers as a declaration about sustainability. You can wear them because you like the sneakers.

The fact that discarded bottles, leather scraps, cleaner construction and a plan for their eventual return are hiding inside?

That’s what makes Nothing New worth a look.