TRASH BEGINNINGS

My name is Ben Galloway and this is my blog to tell anyone who is interested a little bit about my learnings in working to develop my idea: Trash Footwear, into an example of a truelly sustainable business.

I was brought up in Raglan NZ on a 10 hectare block of land, by somewhat hippy-ish parents. My Father created a company called Soul Shoes just up the driveway from the house called 'Soul Shoes' over 35 years ago. In my teens and early adulthood i learnt to make shoes for him and did so part-time for a number of years. Also, after finishing school I went on to spend alot of time trying out a number of internal based spiritual practices; as I attempted to get my young head around this crazy thing called life! The most notable being a rather mind-bending practice called Vippassana meditation, under the instruction of S.N. Goenka. This lead me to carry out a Degree in Sociology, which carried on my questioning of the way we live in our world. All this , and travells have given me a strong desire to understand how we can best bring about positive change in our society to meet the challenges that will no doubt come in our future. My current avenue to work to learn this has been Trash Footwear; so this building of this has been a rather personal process. So in this blog I aim to show this side of it and show the process as it develops. 
I don't think you will all be interested in the minor details of how to make shoes, but for any who are interested in this process that is so important for our society, of moving towards a sustainable way of living, then I feel there is alot to learn from others processes they go through in their attempt to get there. 

So here is the start: This is taken from the Business Plan I wrote in April 2011 that allowed me to go on the enterprise grant and allowance scheme for 5 months during the very starting stages.

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Trash Footwear is an offshoot of Soul Shoes, a company that has been operating for over 38 years in Raglan. Soul Shoes have been sold in shops throughout New Zealand and has a loyal following due to its down to earth ethic, designs and high quality long lasting shoes. Many customers come back with stories of shoes that have lasted over 10 years! http://www.soulshoes.co.nz/

The motivation for Trash Footwear came about as I believe the way we use and exploit our environment needs drastically changing! We place little value on what it provides, using many things once then throwing them away, after they have been through a lengthy production process. So I wanted to contribute in a real way to help change this: Now in New Zealand there are only a handful of shoemakers left making shoes from new materials. As far as I know there is nobody in New Zealand making shoes out of a factory from recycled materials. Good chance to do something me thinks!
Before going overseas recently I made some sandals from my old jeans. I wore these in various countries and received positive comments around the world; from Perth to Thailand, Kenya and England. These lasted well for the whole 3 years, with the new sole wearing through first while the denim upper remained in good condition. I thought alot in this time about my idea: Initially considering second hand clothing (denim, corduroy, canvas) and motorbike tyres.

-My first pair i made and travelled overseas with for nearly three years: This is me at the Berlin Wall mid-2010

However, as Trash Footwear has begun to develop I have realised there is a massive range of 'Waste' materials I can use! Some material I have tried:
-Soling from motorbike tyres from a wrecker in Ngaruawahia and the Harley Davidson store in Te Rapa, and from used conveyor belting from a quarry outside of Raglan and a conveyor wholesaler in Hamilton.
-2nd hand clothing/fabric off cuts from various oppshops and Xtreme Waste refuse and recycling centre in Raglan, webbing, car seat belts, off cuts of thick bag making canvas and from a heavy duty canvas store in Hamilton. lino off cuts and samples sourced from Raglan Flooring.

At present i am mainly using the following materials :
-Used Conveyor Belting: for soling and bases, aswell as heacy duty canvas offcuts for bases.
-Use Clothing, fabric offcuts/samples, leather offcuts for uppers/straps.
*These are all sourced locally from within the Waikato!
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An early pair I made mid 2011: 4wd motorbike tyre sole, vinyl flooring base, used denim and fabric offcut straps

Early pair from mid 2011: Motorbike tyre sole, vinyl leather base, used plaid pant straps

Early material options: Motorbike tyre soles, conveyor belts, used clothing: All sourced from within 100 kms of the Factory in Raglan.

Being on this allowance allowed me to start to develop the Branding and Awareness raising aspects of Trash Footwear; which really is the main reason I started it in the first place, as I saw it as a vehicle to work to make joe public aware of what we throw away every day!
The first major thing I did towards this was to create a promotional zine: A very rough n ready piece that showed the ideas behind the idea aswell aswell as product photos and statements of future intentions. I had about 1000 of these printed.
I also worked to create my own logo: My idea being a butler standing in a rubbish bin offering the audience something; to show the quality of what was in the bin! several friends couldn't quite nail this, so I ended up having several goes myself, after not having drawn for 20 years or so since I was 8! This turned out to be quite a waste of time, but was fun all the same!