Sandals – Nagore Footwear
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona on 09.12.05
Yes we know unfortunately the summer months are coming to an end, but we won’t give up that easily, the sun is still shining here in Barcelona, so here is a last burst of positive summer energy in these colourful sandals by Nagore Footwear. The Abarcas sandals are the traditional Menorcan shoes worn by, well… pretty much everybody.
In Barcelona they can be seen everywhere, worn by little kids, their older siblings, their mum, their dad, and their grandparents too! It is unusual to see a fashion accessory such as shoe appeal to every generation. I can only think of Espadrilles and flip flops as being other ‘sandals’ which cross the gender and age barriers. While the Abarcas sandals are produced by several different shoe companies here in Spain, Treehugger particularly likes those made by Nagore Footwear. They are small shoe design company based in Menorca who’ve been doing good business for 20 years now. The great news is that they are particularly keen on using recycled and eco-materials in their designs. For their Abarcas shoes they use recycled car tyres for the soles and eco-leather from Valencia on the top. They also tell us that they hold competitions for design using recycled materials and this year they presented their own eco-designs in Madrid at a recycled materials fair. It is good to see successful small, local businesses making a serious effort on the Treehugging front and we hope that through the popularity of their shoes they will inspire others to do the same. ::Nagore
[Leonora & Petz]
Abarcas sandals were originaly Peasant footwear. You need about one-two weeks of wear until the leather adapts to your feet; then you cannot go anywhere without your abarcas.
You can find also leather boots with recicled car tyres in Menorca made by Riudavets (www.riudavetsmenorca.com) and others.
What is "eco-leather"?? I tried looking at their website, but couldn't get it to appear in English, and my Spanish is a tad rusty.
gracias