"Sustainability" is an often-used term, yet it is universally undefined – especially when it comes to fashion. For us, "sustainability" means defending and protecting our natural resources, and minimizing the environmental impact of our consumption and decision-making.
Innovative materials are a driving force for our brand. We are always in pursuit of the best organic, bio-based, biodegradable, recycled, and renewable components. Our naturally tanned and vegan leathers, our recycled rubber soles, and even the glue we use, all seek to reinvent how footwear is produced, from the inside out.
The landscape of sustainable development is dynamic, so we are continually sourcing, testing, retesting, and prototyping for our collection. Through our research, we have found some of the most cutting-edge materials and components available, and we are perpetually committed to the process.
Sustainability cannot exist without taking into consideration the people involved in the making process. We are committed to working only with factories that are ethically certified. They provide excellent working conditions while paying fair wages to our artisans. We spend time on site to ensure ongoing compliance, and consider our expert Italian partners as an extension of the Sylven New York family.
We consider the lifecycle of our footwear from creation of each individual component to our products' use and ultimate disposal. We offer care, cleaning, and repairs to extend the life of every pair of shoes we create. We work with a company called TerraCycle to ensure proper recycling and disposal of all unusable parts of our products. In addition, we are proud to limit disposal and support re-use culture through our Vault product portal.
Every pair of Sylven New York shoes is shipped with recycled paper, recycled cotton dust bags, and recycled and recyclable shoe boxes. We employ a plastic-free packaging mandate with all of our factory partners, and we encourage them to extend these regulations into their day-to-day practices.
Every decision we make as a brand is carefully guided by sustainability – how our products are designed, how we ship and store components, how we shoot photography, how we choose retail partners, and even how much we travel. Every choice is rooted in our fundamental guiding principal, to limit our environmental impact.
