Recycled cotton mainly derives from leftovers in the clothes manufacturing process, which are reused to make thread, thus avoiding that they become a part of the rubbish dump and lose their great value.

These snippets, once mashed together and shredded, are mixed with other types of fibres, giving them the resistance needed to make the thread, using the colours of the recycled fibre itself to make textiles with similar characteristics to those of conventional cotton.

Recycling cotton has many advantages for the environment, starting with the fact mentioned above - that it doesn't
end up in the rubbish dump - and among others:

The land used to grow cotton can be used for other purposes.

The large volume of water used for growing cotton is saved.

The use of chemical products normally applied at plantations is avoided.

No dyes, which are usually highly polluting, are used.

Great energy savings, meaning that the carbon footprint in textile production is minimised and the water footprint is erased from its background.

At Vesica Piscis Footwear we also use, although to a lesser extent, certified organic cotton (GOTS), which guarantees awareness in crop growing and a respected workforce.

There are many qualities that can be attributed to the most highly used soft fibre in the world, as long as it has been grown organically.

To be able to be labelled as organic, cotton has to fulfil a series of requirements, all to the benefit of the environment, the workers and the end user.

Starting with the fact that the land where it is grown must be free of all toxic substances and undergo the corresponding rotations so that it is kept in healthy conditions.

The seeds used must not be genetically modified.

And throughout the process from planting to harvesting, it must be free of any chemical substances, such as herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers.

These are the minimum requirements that must be met to be able to label cotton as organic, and with these measures avoid damaging the ecosystem and the health of the workers, as well as any allergies that the end user may suffer, obtaining a softer, breathable fibre.

Another of the materials that we use to manufacture our products is recycled polyester, which mainly originates from plastic bottles.

The recycled polyester fabric is made by the picking of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) from plastic bottles, X-ray plates, fishing nets, etc.

Once the PET is collected, it is washed to eliminate any impurity so they can correctly be triturated.  Then the material gets into a casting process where these little pieces are transformed into small filaments that will create the new polyester fiber. Successively the fiber is transformed into a yarn through a conventional spinning process. Some of the fabrics used at Vesica Piscis are made of this recycled yarn from PET.

Despite being aware of the disadvantages that using said bottles has for the planet, the recycling of these bottles helps to soften their environmental impact, increasing their market value and meaning that a larger number is collected, stopping them, as far as possible, from being thrown away and generating non-biodegradable waste.

Their recycling also helps to conserve non-renewable natural resources and to decrease the water and carbon footprint in their production.

TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) is a melt-processable thermoplastic elastomer with excellent flexibility, durability and abrasion resistance.

It is an ideal material to give it circularity for life, thanks to the fact that it meets the two essential requirements such as durability and its ease of recycling, which led us to create INFINITE SOLE, a new concept of reusable and 100% recyclable sole.

Due to their easy recyclability, a large part of our soles are made with recycled TPU certified GRS (Global RecycledStandard), managing to promote circularity in soles with great performance in addition to minimizing the environmental impact as much as possible, reducing the carbon footprint to a minimum.

Natural rubber (NR), is a polymer which appears as a milky emulsion (latex) in the sap of several plants, Hevea brasiliensis - a tree found in Amazon regions, being one of the main sources of its extraction.

Once collected, the liquid collected (latex) is used, among other things, to produce sheets of different thicknesses, known as crepe, a material which is used to prefabricate all of the soles on the different models in our range.

Among the many virtues that can be attributed to natural rubber, its high level of elasticity and optimum resistance to abrasion must be pointed out.

Another reason why we choose natural rubber to make some of its soles is its easy recyclability, reusing 100% of the material already used to manufacture new items.

Cork is the bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber) that protects it against the extreme conditions of the Mediterranean climate, such as drought, high summer temperatures and fires. It is made up of dead cells whose interior is filled with a gas similar to cork. air. This gas constitutes almost 90% of the cork, hence its very light weight and compressibility. The walls of these cells, which are like tiny watertight compartments, are fundamentally made up of suberin and cerine, substances that make it quite fireproof, very flexible and practically rot-proof.

Cork is, therefore, an extraordinary material, with unique properties. It is a completely natural, renewable and biodegradable product. Its production does not produce any pollution or damage to the ecosystem from which it is extracted, since it is obtained by barking the cork oak, without cutting any tree and this "harvest" is carried out every 9 to 12 years.

We use this wonderful antibacterial material in all the thermoformed insoles of our shoes and to mix it with natural rubber for the insoles of the sandals.

Bamboo is a fast-growing grass, it produces more oxygen and captures more CO2 than any other plant or tree, and no pesticides or herbicides are necessary for its cultivation.

Many varieties are less than 1 m long and have stems (culms) half a centimeter in diameter, although there are also giant bamboos: about 25 m high and 30 cm in diameter.

There are herbaceous and woody ones, grassy ones and more expansive ones, and there are climbing ones. Once cut, the grass sprouts again on its own without the need to replant it, also avoiding desertification, since its roots prevent the rains from washing away the soil. An FSC certified magic herb with which we make our buckles for all our belts.