Since day one, we’ve considered the environment and sustainability our core priorities at SAYE. All decisions made, big or small, have consistently aimed to strive towards greater change by pushing for new solutions, investing in new socio-environmentally conscious projects, and most importantly, setting out to reduce our impact until it is truly neutral.
At SAYE, our conscious journey is guided by the following pillars:
Using innovative materials with recycled and biobased content.
Reducing our environmental footprint as much as possible.
Compensating for any impact that we haven’t been able to reduce.
Transparency is not an option, but a must.
Our Manifesto
At SAYE, we have a clear purpose: to promote a conscious lifestyle by offering high quality vegan sneakers that are kind to the planet and its people. In our aim to forge the path toward a brighter future, all our employees make every decision considering its environmental impact first.
Materials
Our Product Team continually seeks out innovative and durable materials that align with our values and enable us to create long-lasting, eco-friendly footwear. Discover everything about our vegan materials:
Corn Vegan Leather
Crafted from 68% mass content of bio-based material, corn napa has opened up a new way of design, with infinite options of colours and textures that are pleasant to touch, and overall high-quality performance.
Bamboo Yarn
Bamboo is naturally antibacterial, and water-efficient. When pruned, new shoots grow quickly, making it one of the fastest-growing plant species, making it an incredibly sustainable resource. Bamboo yarn is one of the most used materials across SAYE.
Organic Cotton
Organic cotton grows naturally and only uses natural fertilisers during its cultivation, thereby respecting the necessary growth cycles to avoid the depletion of soil nutrients.
Apple Vegan Leather
Crafted with the pulp of discarded apples, this pulp is then turned into a powder and transformed into 100% organic industrial waste. An ecological alternative material with exceptional quality and softness.
Cactus Vegan Leather
Perhaps the most innovative plant-based alternative to traditional leather, cactus napa performs incredibly well under the most rigorous quality and environmental standards and avoids using toxic chemicals.
Recycled & Synthetic Rubber
The soles of our sneakers are composed of up to 70% recycled rubber from production waste that does not meet high-quality standards. They offer maximum performance, comfort, and durability.
Recycled PET Yarn
Most recycled PET material is extracted from post-consumer plastic water bottles, thereby giving a second life to plastic bottles, which would otherwise end up in the sea or as landfills.
Recycled P.U. (Polyurethane)
Recycled P.U. is crafted from the excess waste of mattress factories and used by our supplier to make the insoles of some of our collections.
Seaqual® Yarn
Seaqual® is an initiative that collaborates with international fishing communities to transform post-consumer plastic and upcycled marine plastic into high-quality yarn.
Materials
Corn Napa
Crafted from 68% mass content of bio-based material, corn napa has opened up a new way of design, with infinite options of colours and textures that are pleasant to touch, and overall high-quality performance.
Bamboo Yarn
Bamboo is naturally antibacterial, and water-efficient. When pruned, new shoots grow quickly, making it one of the fastest-growing plant species, making it an incredibly sustainable resource. Bamboo yarn is one of the most used materials across SAYE.
Organic Cotton
Organic cotton grows naturally and only uses natural fertilisers during its cultivation, thereby respecting the necessary growth cycles to avoid the depletion of soil nutrients.
Apple Napa
Crafted with the pulp of discarded apples, this pulp is then turned into a powder and transformed into 100% organic industrial waste. An ecological alternative material with exceptional quality and softness.
Cactus Napa
Perhaps the most innovative plant-based alternative to traditional leather, cactus napa performs incredibly well under the most rigorous quality and environmental standards and avoids using toxic chemicals.
Recycled and Synthetic Rubber
The soles of our sneakers are composed of up to 70% recycled rubber from production waste that does not meet high-quality standards. They offer maximum performance, comfort, and durability.
Recycled PET yarn
Most recycled PET material is extracted from post-consumer plastic water bottles, thereby giving a second life to plastic bottles, which would otherwise end up in the sea or as landfills.
Recycled P.U. (Polyurethane)
Recycled P.U. is crafted from the excess waste of mattress factories and used by our supplier to make the insoles of some of our collections.
Seaqual® Yarn
Seaqual® is an initiative that collaborates with international fishing communities to transform post-consumer plastic and upcycled marine plastic into high-quality yarn.
Responsible Packaging
We are consistently evaluating and improving our packaging. We’re fully aware that as an online brand, delivering our products can generate a considerable amount of waste, our team works hard to find methods that are constantly finding ethical, operational solutions.
Whilst these changes can be minimal and invisible to the consumer, with time, we have the opportunity to make big changes.
Our Design Process
From choosing the quality materials, whether bio-based or recycled, to manufacturing the final samples using as few prototypes as possible. Opting for vegan, bio-based sneakers production is not the easiest of options, but at SAYE it's the only course of action that aligns with our values. Despite this, it’s about constantly enriching a product that is highly durable, sustainable, and a long-term investment for our planet.
Ethical Manufacturing
Since the beginning, we’ve selected conscious collaborators, suppliers, and manufacturers that care for the planet and guarantee a safe and respectful environment for their employees.
Our products are carefully handmade in Spain, Portugal and Vietnam, and all our associates are regularly audited to make sure they adhere to our Code of Conduct.
Ethical Manufacturing
From the beginning, we’ve selected conscious collaborators, suppliers, and manufacturers that care for the planet and guarantee a safe and respectful environment for their employees. In addition, all our associates are regularly audited to make sure they adhere to our Code of Conduct.
The People behind SAYE
As a group of young, environmentally conscious individuals who are motivated by innovation, transparency, and offering sustainable solutions, we take meaningful steps to ensure that our working environment is on-par with our products. We’re constantly looking to evolve in the workplace: from ensuring that it’s a safe, zero-discrimination environment, to running anonymous workplace satisfaction surveys. Whilst there’s always room for improvement, we can contentedly share the following statistics:
Social Projects
SJD Solidaritat
In March 2024, we celebrated Earth Day by landscaping a home for immigrant single mothers and their children. All the materials used were donated by SAYE from each pair of sneaker sold.
Period.org
We collaborated with Period.org in March 2023, a nonprofit project that combats both period poverty and stigma, by donating menstrual products to those women in most need.
FoodForLife
In November 2022 we collaborated with Food For Life. This non-profit organization provides plant-based meals to anyone who is disadvantaged, malnourished, or a victim of disaster.
Gravity Wave
We all know the damage that plastic is having on our oceans, so in November 2021 we collected 1kg of plastic with every pair of sneakers sold, in collaboration with Gravity Wave.
Social Projects
SJD Solidaritat
In March 2024, we celebrated Earth Day by landscaping a home for immigrant single mothers and their children. All the materials used were donated by SAYE from each pair of sneaker sold.
Period.org
Fighting for menstrual equity is something we consider incredibly important at SAYE. We collaborated with PERIOD in March 2023, a nonprofit project that combats both, period poverty and stigma by donating menstrual products to those most in need.
Food for life
In November 2022 we collaborated with Food For Life. This non-profit organization provides plant-based meals to anyone who is disadvantaged, malnourished, or a victim of disaster.
Gravity Wave
We’ve all noticed the damage that plastic is having on our planet, so we decided to do something about it. In collaboration with Gravity Wave, in November 2021, we collected 1kg of plastic with every pair of sneakers sold.
Sustainability Goals
The craftsmanship, detail, and care that is put into the making of our sneakers are a constant search and investment in innovative solutions. There is always room for growth and in consequence, we must calculate, reduce, and compensate for all our actions to keep striving for change, and reducing our impact until it’s truly carbon neutral. The following objectives are those we consider essential to our growth and evolution.
B Corp Certification
We are working hard to meet B Corp’s high standards and become B Corp Certified by 2024.
Reforestation
To date, we’ve planted over 300.000 trees. Our goal is to reach 500.000 by 2025.
Social Projects
Since 2021, each year we've collaborated with different social and environmental projects, such as Gravity Wave, Food for Life, and Period.org.
Mapping
We are committed to continuing to trace the value chain of all our products together with BCome.
Transparency
Transparency is not an option, it’s a must across all our products and decisions, both internally and externally.
Ecodesign
We will continue to design with a sustainable criteria, reducing our impact from the very conceptualization of the product.
Comfort and durability
We are determined to continue to produce long-lasting quality products that undergo rigorous testing procedures.
Better Logistics
Improve our logistics and warehouse stock management in order to reduce the carbon footprint of our shipping procedures.
Second hand
We will continue to give a second life to all those products that are unfit for their original use.