Flamingos Life
Flamingos´ Life produces vegan sneakers with recycled and sustainable materials. Their philosophy is founded on three pillars:
use their company to provide a solution to ecological crisis that we are facing.
animals are a value for themselves and they have right to live without suffering.
making the fashion industry visible, ensuring its processes are transparent for the consumer and proving all the information they need to make accurate and mindful decisions.
The majority of footwear-manufacturing Asian countries lack laws regulating the environmental impacts of mass production. This results in serious ecological degradation caused by over-exploitation of resources, emissions of polluting gases and waste generation that is completely uncontrolled. Flamingos’ Life was founded with a very clear aim: using the company – and making the entire supply chain fairer and more democratic – to save the planet from an ecological crisis. To do this, they moved away from that business model based on the exploitation of land, workers and animals and decided to manufacture entirely in Spain, in local and ethical businesses. The production centers are located in Elche, Spain, and managed by families. Materials used are developed in-house, such as those made from corn waste, bamboo, hemp, organic cotton, grown using just water (with no pesticides) and natural rubber sustainably extracted from the Hevea brasiliensis tree. The sneakers are made with post-consumer plastic bottle materials, plastics generated in the footwear industry that had reached the end of their useful life, organic cotton grown using just water (with no pesticides) and natural rubber sustainably extracted from the Hevea brasiliensis tree. On average one pair FL shoes contains two recycled plastic bottles. So, for every pair of shoes you buy, you’re directly helping to reduce the environmental problem of plastic waste contamination. All the recycled plastic materials used have the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification audited by Control Union, the top certifying authority that currently exists.
Most companies do not share information about the process behind manufacturing their products. This deliberate secrecy affects the entire supply chain: from the CO2 emissions generated while extracting the raw materials, to the way these are transported, to workplace and child labour exploitation, to the end consumers that do not have the tools to make mindful and accurate decisions. Flamingos´ Life upholds radical transparency as a fundamental axis of their organization. The goal is to unlock the hidden truth of the fashion industry and to make the entire supply chain more democratic. For this, they have established a key collaboration with the sustainable fashion consulting company BCOME. Together with BCOME, Flamingo´s Life has carried out a deep analysis of the production processes, measuring the environmental footprint with the goal of giving customers true, clear and concise information about the entire supply chain. Various factors within the production processes were studied, such as raw materials, working conditions, corporate traceability, product cycle and waste, among other aspects.
Results
The outcome of this project in collaboration with BCOME has been that in the production of the various SS20 collection designs FLamingo´s Life saved over 2,500 liters of water compared with sneakers made from leather. The introduction of biodegradable raw materials, such as corn and hemp, is crucial to reduce carbon emissions and toxicity. In fact, with the SS20 collection 318kg less CO2 and 233 grams less PO4 were emitted compared with sneakers made from leather. Around 100 people contribute to the creation of one of the sneaker designs, from first sketches, to the cultivation and treatment of new raw materials, to the cutting, sewing, vulcanizing and packaging which get the product ready for sale. BCOME certifies that everybody who contributes to the creation of the sneakers performs their work under safe and ethical working conditions.
Each shoe collection is associated with a social project that acts to balance their footprint and that improves lives of the most disadvantaged living beings on the planet. Each month part of the revenue is donated to a specific NGO, that is chosen carefully, maintaining direct monthly contact with them. So, you’re not just buying shoes. You are part of the ecological activism that the planet needs to be able to develop sustainably. You’re helping to generate cleaner air by reforesting various areas of the planet, or you’re cleaning debris from the Pacific Ocean and recycling plastic bottles. For example, together with Eden Reforestation Projects, Flamingos´ Life runs several reforestation projects on a global scale that directly contribute to the reforestation of areas of Madagascar and Mozambique. Every pair you purchase from the Rancho Collection directly helps to plant 5 trees with the NGO Eden Reforestation Projects. Madagascar has more than 200,000 species of plants and animals that do not exist anywhere else in the world. Currently, more than 90% of Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed, affecting and displacing many species of animals and reducing the land’s natural ability to retain moisture. This causes droughts, among other negative environmental phenomena. Together with Eden Projects, FL is reforesting estuaries of ecologically devastated mangroves in the northwest of the country. Mangroves are an essential ecosystem with dense roots that serve as an anchor for the soil and the coast, preventing erosion and creating a barrier between ocean systems and the land. In addition, another of the objectives we have with Eden Projects is to reforest and revive the natural habitat of endangered animal species. Madagascar has some of the most unique and rare plant and animal species on earth, and yet 50% are in danger of extinction. In fact, one of the rarest mammal species on earth, the lemur, lives in the forests of Madagascar. More than half of all lemur species are classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. In the last 2,000 years, at least 15 species of lemurs have become extinct. The two main reasons why these fascinating creatures are disappearing are poaching and deforestation. Using ‘employed to plant’ methodology, FL has hired hundreds of local villagers to restore their land by planting trees. Recovering forests means creating a safe haven for lemurs and the many other endangered species of Madagascar.
The Roland collection is linked to the foundation Waste Free Oceans (WFO), an organization based in Brussels. With every pair of shoes you buy you are helping to clean the ocean. FL´s mission is to clean up marine plastic and transform it into innovative products. Connecting local fishermen, recycling companies and political agents, together with WFO FL intends to reduce, recycle and finally reuse marine litter. WFO has ocean, sea and river cleaning projects in the Azores Islands, Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, the Black Sea and the Danube River. The monthly donations made to WFO are aimed at covering the general needs of the foundation. In this sense, WFO is free to invest that money in the projects that need it most. In 2019, FL´s donations mainly went directly to the Bulgarian and Romanian project “Let’s Clean Up the Danube Together”, to protect the Danube by cleaning the waters and coasts and collecting and recycling waste. The project focuses its work in critical locations on the Danube River, starting in Romania and ending at the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Based: Elche, Spain.
Ships to: At this moment we ship to Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. We expect to start shipping to the US in the next months.
Products: Sneakers.
Mission: Provide a solution to the ecological crisis that humans have generated in the last decades.
Vision: Build a better future through veganism as a vehicle of change. It is the key to reduce our CO2 emissions, save water and respect life of all living beings.
