WE AREN'T PERFECT. BUT WE ARE IMPATIENT

At hylo, we’re impatient for change. Impatient for a gigantic industry with polluting habits and processes to turn itself around and for fast fashion to slow down.  We’re impatient for footwear to reduce its footprint problem and to put our planet over profit. But people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, so it’s important that we own our imperfections and are transparent about how we can improve too.

The following article is intended to explain some of the problems that we see in the industry and how we are trying to resolve them, as well as the key points we acknowledge that we can also do better.

Why we are impatient?

The vast majority of sportswear products are reliant on fossil fuel-derived materials. Fossil fuels are the number one cause of the climate crisis. If footwear was a country it would be the 17th largest polluter  and 90% of shoes end up in landfill with limited end of life solutions. 

On our current trajectory, there is a more than 50% chance that rising global temperatures will reach or surpass 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) between 2021 and 2040 and under a high-emissions scenario, the world may hit this threshold even sooner — between 2018 and 2037 (IPCC Report, 2023). And countless other statistics and stories…

How are we imperfect?

1. Our shoes are not yet 100% derived from renewable content as we sometimes need to use fossil fuel based materials, often due to lack of alternatives. The IMPACT is currently 40% bio-based with a carbon footprint of 8.63kg/coe2. We constantly obsess over these two numbers, striving to improve - but we aren’t perfect.

2. We are creating new products that have an environmental impact and we truly believe that as a Planet, we need to consume less.

3. We need to improve our communication and execution of our recycling program to ensure our community recycle more and more with us through their local running stores. We also need to try and localise a recycling supply chain partner in the united states to reduce the logistics footprint of recycling in Europe

4. We want to use more green energy in our supply chain. As a small company we work with 3rd parties to produce and deliver our product. The more demand we have, the more we can start to establish renewable energy infrastructure with our partners.

5. We need to localise more of our 2nd and 3rd party suppliers in our supply chain around our tier 1 supplier. This will further reduce the carbon footprint of our products.

However, despite all of the above we also believe in running more. Therefore, there is a clear need to create products for runners that last and improve on the current impact that running shoes have on our Planet and that is why we exist.

RUN LIKE THE WORLD DEPENDS ON IT