Ethical trainers, yes please!

Last Thursday I went to an event at The Hub in Kings Cross, 'The Amazon - Can fashion help saving the rainforest?' The discussion centred around the work of Bia Saldanha, a Brazilian fashion designer turned eco-pioneer who moved from her boutique in Ipanema in 1989 to Acre in the heart of the Amazon. She was heavily involved in the ecological movement in Rio, the Green Party and also worked alongside Chico Mendes the social activist. Mendès, a rubber tapper and trade union leader was another passionate environmentalist in Brazil and was an integral part of the fight to preserve both the rainforest and communities who lived there before he was assassinated by a rancher in 1988.

On moving to the rainforest, Bia’s plan was to create a fair trading system in rubber production by supporting the local rubber tappers whilst also promoting sustainable forestry and preventing deforestation. Her belief that the money from the forest should stay in the forest lead her to help the rubber tappers produce and process products which could be sold on, instead of just exporting the raw material. In her early days she worked with top designers like Hermes to provide Treetap a vegetal leather fabric.

She is now working closely with Veja providing them with rubber soles for their trainers (which are also made of organic cotton). The rubber comes from within the Chico Mendès reserve where the rubber tappers – Amopreab, an association of Seringeiros – use a new technology developed at the University of Brasilia. The benefits of the new FDL (Liquid Smoked Sheet) process is that it enabled the rubber tappers to process the latex into rubber sheets without the need for industrial intermediary processes. This rubber can then be sent directly to the factory where it is ready to be molded. By supporting the communities within the forest, traditional skills are retained, livelihoods are protected and the precious resources of the Amazon are sustainably preserved.