Sustainable Footwear Design Challenge Submission Page!

NOTE: 2022 submissions will be open in September.

This challenge is CLOSED.

September 15, 2021 – November 15, 2021

We challenge you to design better.

THEME: My favorite KICKS!

What does sustainability mean to you? What materials can be used? How can your designs positively impact the green circular economy? Some of the questions that provoke deeper thinking for footwear design, especially sneakers! Over 50% of the population buying shoes this year will purchase sneakers, tennis shoes or kicks. Normally, the sneakers you own can take up to 40 years to begin decomposing stage.

Why not design better?

Last-Report.com and Shoewaste.com is working together with the members of the LA Sanitation and Environment on an initiative to reduce Shoe Waste in the local Los Angeles county landfill. The initiatives developed by Last-Report.com founder and editor, Tanita Gray will establish best practices that support the education and implementation of programs to help designers, manufacturers and consumers dispose of Shoe Waste.

Who better than the LA Sanitation and Environment to tell us the immediate concerns they see on a daily basis? Footwear is a constantly growing segment of the fashion retail market where each person owns at the very least 5 to 7 pairs of shoes.” Says Gray. “When those shoes have fallen out of style or have run its lifecycle – we simply throw them in the trash if they cannot be resold or handed down. Essentially the entrants of this contest are creating better ways to produce footwear that can be easily deconstructed, properly disposed of, and perhaps upcycled.

Together with a local shoe factory, this design challenge will help foster improvements within the footwear industry starting with YOU – the designer.