Students may be sporting plastic water bottles on their feet come this spring. Kind of.
Rafters Footwear, a Eugene-based shoe company, plans on making part of its sandals from recycled plastic water bottles. The Eugene Chamber of Commerce recently awarded Rafters, a wholesale arm of the Combs Company, the Emerald Award for Innovation.
Asian shoe suppliers will start manufacturing the sandals for Rafters this year, and the recycled materials will be used as webbing on the top part of the sandals.
Retailers expect the product to do well in Eugene because they say customers in the area are aware of water bottle waste.
In 2005, Oregonians put more than 125 million recyclable plastic water bottles in the dump, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
Karyn Kaplan, the University’s environmental resource and recycling program manager, said water bottles harm the environment because manufacturing the bottles uses petroleum and emits carbon dioxide, and the transportation of the bottles uses fuel.
“Bottled water has the largest impact on the environment in terms of single-serve drinks,” she said.
Some of these wasted bottles will be put to good use thanks to Rafters. The company was looking for a way to reduce its impact on the environment about a year ago, said company president Bill Combs.
“That starts with the minimalist design approach, which means using less plastic, less hardware, less everything,” he said.
The company started looking into turning plastic bottles, which are made of high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, into sandals about a year ago, Combs said. The bottles are chopped into pellets, melted into a liquid form and are rolled into almost pure polyester. The material is later dyed.
“When that’s melted down, you can extrude the fiber and it’s almost pure poly fiber,” Combs said. “It’s a great material to reuse or recycle because you don’t have to touch it, if you will, because it’s so pure.”
The bottles come from Taiwan, Combs said, and a Chinese company manufactures the shoes.
“There’s people who think of China as a large polluting country,” Combs said. “It is, but as more vendors such as us ask our suppliers to do what they can to reduce their impact on the environment, they do the research.”
Terry Allen of Burch’s Fine Footwear, also owned by the Combs Company, said the design of the sandals is the main selling point.
“The advantage of polyurethane is that it’s very resistant, in its newest formula, to fraying,” Allen said. “It feels cooler, softer and is more comfortable.”
He said he expects the sandals to appeal to Eugeneans.
“We live in an area where the population is really in-tune to the environment,” Allen said.
Alisha Cypcar, the footwear assistant manager at Joe’s sports store in Eugene, said she hopes Rafters educates customers on how its sandals will be made.
“People would love the product, especially if the company does a good job of advertising it,” Cypcar said.
Combs said larger shoe makers may start to make products from recycled materials even though the process is 40 percent more expensive.
“Prices will come down as more do the same,” he said.
Despite Rafters’ efforts to make sandals from recycled materials, Combs said the company isn’t green.
“We do a lot of things wrong, but we’re just doing a little bit to help out,” Combs said.
Rafters is sold at 1,500 outlets, including Joe’s, Bass Pro and Sports Authority. Rafters’ Eugene headquarters includes the sales, marketing and customer service divisions.
[email protected]