Saving Soles and the Environment

Take old tires, pop bottles and wetsuits, add leftover coffee filters, hospital gowns and disposable diapers, and what do you have?

Ingredients for DejaShoes.

The shoes, which are touted as recyclable as well as made of recycled materials, will be introduced Aug. 23 at an industry trade show in Las Vegas.

A few years back, Deja Inc. founder Julie Lewis was a homemaker with two kids, a concern for the environment and an idea about creating markets for recycled materials: How about using old tires to make the soles of shoes?

The current DejaShoe prototypes are simple, stylish black canvas shoes that the company is expecting to sell at retail stores for between $45 and $60.

The sole is made of recycled milk jugs, polystyrene cups and tire rubber, Lewis said. The midsole material, which will be recessed into the sole, is reclaimed neoprene from wet suit manufacturers. The inner sole is recycled coffee filters and file folders.