Take an ordinary sneaker apart and you find a quiet pile of plastic: a synthetic sole, nylon thread, plastic lace tips, petroleum glue, usually under a layer of leather or "vegan leather." Most of it is invisible from the outside, which is exactly how it gets sold as green. But a shoe is only as honest as its smallest part. So we rebuilt every one of those parts from something that grew instead, all the way down to the tips of the laces. This is what goes into ours, what it replaces, and why the small parts matter as much as the big ones.
Why the small parts matter
A compostable shirt sewn with polyester is not compostable
This is where a lot of "sustainable" products quietly fall apart. A shirt can be made of organic cotton and stitched with polyester thread, or finished with a nylon label, and those few grams of plastic shed microplastics for the rest of its life. A shoe has dozens of these hiding places: the thread, the lace tips, the glue, the reinforcement. The headline material gets all the attention while the plastic sits in the parts nobody reads. So a plant-based shoe is only as honest as its smallest component. That is why the list below goes all the way down to the tips of the laces.
Inside the shoe: Nooch vs the old world
Same shoe, two completely different material systems. Here is a Nooch next to an ordinary sneaker, part by part.
| Shoe component | The Nooch solution (plant-based and plastic-free) | The standard sneaker (hidden plastics) |
|---|---|---|
| Upper | Hyphalite: mushroom leather grown from mycelium and natural latex | Animal leather or polyurethane "vegan" leather |
| Sole | Natural rubber (non-vulcanised) | Synthetic rubber or EVA foam (up to 1,000 years in landfill) |
| Insole | Natural rubber, coconut and linen | Petroleum-based EVA foam |
| Laces and lining | Organic, unbleached cotton | Polyester and nylon |
| Lace tips (aglets) | Plant cellulose | Hard plastic |
| Thread | Linen and cotton | Nylon or polyester (sheds microplastics) |
| Glue | Water-based, solvent-free, plastic-free | Petroleum-based glues |
| Reinforcement | Bio-based, plastic-free | Synthetic stiffeners |
There is no leather anywhere, and no plastic anywhere either: not in the sole, not in the glue, not in the thread, not even in the lace tips. That last part is the step most "sustainable" shoes quietly skip, keeping a plastic sole or synthetic laces under a plant-based upper.
The sole is the slow part
Every cast has a slow one, and in a Nooch it is the sole. Most of the shoe is soft natural fibre that breaks down relatively quickly in soil. The sole takes its time. It is natural rubber, and because it is not vulcanised, not locked shut with sulphur the way a car tyre is, it stays something micro-organisms can eventually work on rather than a permanent block of synthetic. It is still the slowest part, on the order of a few years rather than months. Even that is almost nothing next to the centuries a synthetic sole can last in a landfill.
What returning to nature really means, how we measure it, and why slow is not the same as bad, is the whole story on our dedicated page.
What an ordinary shoe leaves behind
The right-hand column above is not just a list of materials. It is a bill that comes due. Leather brings the footprint of the cattle and the tanning behind it. The synthetic parts shed microplastics while you wear them and do not return to anything after.
Every year, the footwear industry leaves a staggering footprint:
- 24 billion+ pairs of shoes are made annually.
- 90% of them are never recycled, ending up incinerated or in landfill.
- 1,000 years: how long a standard EVA sole can take to break down.
That is the pile a plant-based shoe is trying to answer. Part by part.
Frequently asked questions about plant-based shoe materials
What is a plant-based shoe made of?
Plant and natural materials in place of plastic and leather: organic cotton laces and lining, a plant-based upper, linen and cotton thread, a natural rubber sole, and a water-based glue. Every part, down to the lace tips, has a plant or natural answer rather than a synthetic one.
Is a plant-based shoe completely plastic-free?
Ours is. That is the entire design. The thread, the lace tips, the glue and the reinforcement are the usual hiding places for plastic, so they are exactly where we put a plant or natural material instead. It is also where most shoes sold as plant-based stop short, keeping a plastic sole, a synthetic heel or polyester laces. We went all the way down, because a shoe is only as plastic-free as its smallest part.
What is the upper made of?
A mushroom leather called Hyphalite, grown from mycelium (the root structure of mushrooms) with cellulose and natural latex, rather than animal leather or plastic-based "vegan leather".
How durable is a mushroom leather shoe?
Good natural materials are tougher than people expect: hemp, organic cotton and natural rubber are robust and flexible. Mushroom leather is a younger material, and early versions were less hard-wearing, so it has been refined for everyday wear. As with any shoe, durability comes from the material and the construction together, and with normal care a plant-based shoe holds up.
Does a plant-based shoe fall apart or decompose while you wear it?
No. The materials are stable in normal wear. Returning to nature is about the end of a shoe's life and the right conditions, not your daily walk in the rain.
Are plant-based shoes biodegradable?
We do not claim that, because "biodegradable" is a regulated word with a specific legal meaning that we are still gathering proof for. What we can say is that ours is built entirely from plant and natural materials with no plastic, and that we are researching how it returns to nature. The honest version of that, and how we measure it, is on our return-to-nature page.
Can I bury my shoes in the garden?
We do not recommend that and we do not claim it. Returning to nature is a property of the materials that we are still researching, not a disposal instruction, and the sole in particular needs conditions a garden does not provide.