Earth’s population is now 7 billion and continuing to increase by a billion every 13 years or so. With limited resources on earth, it is in everyone’s best interest to be more eco-friendly and practice the 3 Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle. Separating my rubbish into plastics, glass, paper and cardboard had been my extent of recycling until I bought a pair of recycled shoes made by Levi’s. These are not secondhand shoes, but shoes that have been made from recycled materials.

Levi’s is a company that is trying to be more eco-friendly. It has a Water<Less range of jeans which uses on average 28% less water to manufacture. Levi’s encourages consumers to donate their old jeans and they also used 25 500 pairs of old jeans to make recycled denim insulation for their San Francisco headquarters.

Additionally, Levi’s also has a range of footwear called their Red Tab shoes, which is made from old jeans. According to Levi’s, no two pairs of shoes are the same.

This recycled Levi’s shoes started life as a pair of jeans.

While I love the design and idea of the recycled shoes, I have an issue with the cost. The Levi’s recycled shoe cost more than the pair of Levi’s shoes made from new materials. Surely recycled shoes should cost less since the recycled materials used to make it would cost less. If recycled shoes were cheaper than shoes made of new materials, this would encourage more people to recycle.

Both pairs of Levi’s shoes that I bought were made in Indonesia, and they seem to be made to fit Indonesian feet too. I found the shoes to be slightly too narrow for my feet, but I still love the style of the Levi’s shoes.

Red Tab recycled shoes by Levi’s also come with denim shoelaces.