noa zaidman’s recyclable shoes are composed of two modules

Jul 13, 2023

Challenging the footwear industry’s harmful mass production and waste, Noa Zaidman proposes a solution with a pair of recyclable modular shoes. While most shoes are composed of a mixture of many materials that cannot be broken down, they end up in a landfill, unable to be recycled. Zaidman’s alternative, however, is made simply from two flexible parts — a mono-material 3D printed flexible sole, and a knitted upper crafted entirely out of elastic yarn. The design’s modularity allows wearers the options of washing the upper if needed, replacing a worn out sole, recycling a component, or playing around with different pairings for different looks.

attaching the back to the sole | all images courtesy of Noa Zaidman

‘There is a problem with the footwear industry as we know it,’ notes Noa Zaidman. ‘24.2 billion pairs of shoes are manufactured globally each year and most of them end up in landfills or incinerators.’ A large contributor to this is their materiality – a mixture of synthetics, plastics, and leathers which are unable to separate and be recycled.

Resolving this, the designer conceived a shoe comprising two modules, including a knitted upper and TPU outsole. The upper attaches onto the sole by pulling on the elastic cords to the hooks of the base. It is knitted manually on a double bed domestic knitting machine using three ends of an elastic yarn, making it durable and flexible. The cords are knitted from the same yarn to which the different pattern pieces of the upper are also linked, making the module easy to recycle. Meanwhile, the mono-material sole is 3D printed entirely out of a TPU flexible filament. Made without any adhesives, the components are very easy to attach, wear, and take off.

Noa Zaidman proposes a solution to the footwear industry’s waste with a pair of recyclable modular shoes

two flexible parts: a mono-material 3D printed flexible sole, and a knitted upper made of elastic yarn

elastic cords fasten the modules

‘24.2 billion pairs of shoes are manufactured globally each year and most of them end up in landfills or incinerators’

the upper attaches onto the sole by pulling on the elastic cords to the hooks of the base

the modules can we swapped for playing around with different pairings for different looks

project info:

name: Knitted colors designer: Noa Zaidman

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edited by: ravail khan | designboom