Recare about Shoes

Fight against the throw-away mentality

A European buys an average of 26 kilograms of textiles a year, and throws away 11.3 kilograms of textiles, including a lot of shoes. KU Leuven is tackling the fast-fashion system with the living lab Recare about Shoes.

Circular business model for the shoe sector
Due to the fast-fashion industry, raw materials for shoes transform into waste at lightning speed, resulting in a large environmental burden. In the living lab Recare about Shoes:

• KU Leuven, led by Ysabel Nauwelaerts, is tinkering with a feasible, circular business model for the shoe sector, for b2b and b2c. New maintenance and repair initiatives play a major role in this.
• Together with partners, we develop strategies to encourage consumers to treat their shoes more sustainably.

The mission: extending the life of shoes through maintenance, repair and reuse. The fact that this gives the shoemaker's work a new value is a nice bonus.

Partners in the value chain
For this living lab, KU Leuven attracted a lot of partners such as Ambiorix, Cycleur de Luxe, Mister Minit and Torfs, four SMEs from the Flemish shoe industry. The Product Design course of the LUCA School of Arts in Genk brings a lot of expertise on circular design. Design agency Mooseoffice, Branding And Trading Projects and Flanders DC are also collaborating. The project will run from March 2024 to March 2026.