Vivobarefoot’s Founder On the Way forward for Regenerative Enterprise

In 2022, footwear and way of life model Vivobarefoot bought a file 773,000 pairs of footwear, however in case you ask co-founder and Chief Ecosystem Officer Galahad Clark about his imaginative and prescient, he’ll let you know that above gross sales, the model has far more far-reaching objectives: human and planetary well being.

I just lately sat down with Galahad to debate Vivobarefoot’s regenerative enterprise initiatives that embrace aggressive sustainability objectives, a recycle and restore platform, upcoming bespoke scan-to-print footwear, and why the model believes that trying to indigenous cultures will present us easy methods to enhance trendy footwear design.

Learn extra from our dialogue under.

Christopher Marquis: Inform us a bit about your background. The final title sounds acquainted. How did you get into barefoot footwear?

Galahad Clark: My household’s heritage lies deeply rooted within the footwear trade – we’re seven generations of cobblers from Glastonbury, Somerset England, relationship again to 1825. Whereas Clarks Footwear stands as one of many oldest and most acknowledged footwear companies on the planet, I started a private journey to revolutionize the way in which society perceives footwear by way of the arrival of Vivobarefoot.

Along with my cousin and co-founder, Asher Clark, we launched into a world odyssey, immersing ourselves on the planet of shoemaking. We sought knowledge from each modern shoemakers and indigenous craftsmen, looking for to soak up their information and strategies. All through our travels, a paramount precept crystallized—the essence of barefoot design and the inherent function of footwear is safeguarding our ft from cuts, chilly, and warmth. We consider probably the most extraordinary piece of know-how ever integrated into footwear is the human foot itself. Thus, our model pivoted round this profound realization, liberating ft to maneuver freely as supposed by Mom Nature.

Marquis: What does a regenerative enterprise mannequin seem like at Vivobarefoot? What are you doing as a pacesetter to impression social change?

Clark: At Vivobarefoot, we’re dedicated to being a regenerative enterprise each in and out. This implies our enterprise is one which helps the connection to pure programs for the those that work in our firm, those that make our merchandise and the those that put on them. We need to foster a working atmosphere the place individuals really feel welcome to deliver their complete selves to work and due to this fact are capable of uncover extra of their pure inventive spark. I consider this humanness invitations innovation, collaboration and purposefulness into the guts of on a regular basis conferences and decision-making. Our tradition of agility and empowered entrepreneurialism permits failures to be repeatedly reworked into learnings and reduces the burden of forms.

Trying exterior, we aren’t afraid to shake up the established order and revise ingrained, recurring approaches to commerce. This implies swimming ever extra firmly towards the tide to realize substantial social and environmental impression. In 2020 we achieved B Corp certification and we’re going above and past the standard 3-year B-Corp evaluation by conducting self-assessments yearly.

We additionally consider in worth chains over provide chains. We provide full transparency by way of our newly launched Digital Worth Chains Map about precisely who we’re working with, the place they’re, and the way they’re performing towards Vivobarefoot requirements. Moreover, we created an in-house impression fund, the Livebarefoot Fund, which is an incubation hub for social and environmental initiatives that purpose to pioneer regeneration options. We obtain this by way of driving analysis, innovation and motion in footwear, experiences and group engagement.

Marquis: Why do you consider historical knowledge is the muse for the way forward for human and planetary well being? Are you able to inform us extra about your tasks with indigenous communities?

Clark: Now we have constructed our trendy life on the idea that we’re separate from nature. Consequently, our sedentary, cushioned, poisonous existence is making us and our planet sick. Our base fulcrum at Vivobarefoot is the notion that we’re nature and nature is us, so as a substitute of preventing nature we have to let nature heal us and the way in which we consider we will embrace human nature is to “rewild” our lives.

Now we have traveled the world on the search for the proper shoe, and alongside that journey we have been launched to a few of final persistence hunters left on earth based mostly within the

Kalahari Desert of Africa, the Ju’/hoansi bushmen, artisan from the Saami group in Finland, the Mongolian feltmakers, the moccsain makers in Canda and cobblers in India. We started studying and collaborating with the cobblers who’ve been making footwear for millennia, and gained super perception into how we might greatest simplify our designs, and enhance the pure operate and environment-specific efficiency in all our footwear.

We devoted ourselves to working with the Ju’/hoansi tribe to create 2,000 sandal run that will likely be launched this summer time making a grassroots enterprise the place the earnings are reinvested instantly again to the local people. Reviving this crucial historical craftsmanship with the San in addition to different indigenous communities all over the world will stay core to our ongoing indigenous advocacy efforts.

Marquis: As , lots of trade gamers have made lofty guarantees with their sustainability platforms however are lagging of their supply of circularity. What do you see missing within the trade’s efforts to sort out environmental issues? Is there sufficient transparency?

Clark: The reality is, no footwear are really regenerative and anybody who claims in any other case just isn’t being clear. At Vivobarefoot, we make the most of a Vmatrix instrument to internally assess the sustainability of our design ideas and rating every part from longevity to supplies and end-of-life potential. All of our footwear are manufactured from biofabricated, recycled and pure supplies and we’re continuously engaged on methods to make footwear that’s extra simply recyclable repairable or biodegradable.

In 2024 we’re tackling our greatest innovation but once we launch VIVOBIOME within the US. The undertaking will purpose to resolve the overproduction and manufacturing waste that’s widespread within the months-long cycle it usually takes to supply a pair of footwear with a radical scan-to-print round footwear system that can reimagine how footwear is created. Made-to-be-remade, the footwear will likely be made person-by-person, foot-by-foot, out of native supplies.

Marquis: Inform us extra about your e-commerce platform, Revivo. What can customers do to make a distinction at dwelling?

Clark: Yearly 22 billion pairs of footwear are dumped into landfills.

We need to try to fight this in an actual means, so we created our recommerce platform, Revivo. Launched in July 2020, it’s the first repair-for-resale web site launched by a footwear model. On Revivo, clients should purchase professionally refurbished Vivos at 20-50% off the unique value. Worn Vivos are cleaned, sanitized, after which checked in order that any faults are repaired by a educated craftsperson earlier than they’re boxed and able to be bought. Which means that clients that store on Revivo obtain secondhand merchandise which can be licensed as refurbished by consultants, in contrast to on resale marketplaces. Revivo sells to greater than 50 international locations and presents greater than 15,000 merchandise at any given time, many from earlier collections which can be not accessible on the Vivobarefoot web site.

Revivo presents a world take-back program that permits clients to ship again worn Vivos to make sure that they don’t find yourself in landfill. Whereas we love seeing this round economic system carried out by numerous manufacturers today, the footwear trade continues to be catching up. We’re in all probability most happy with the huge of progress in repairs we’re already seeing, with practically 31,000 final 12 months. So the extra Vivos which can be returned again to us (at the moment we see 48% return price), the extra we will restore and preserve them away from landfills.