The weather is warming up and you’re keen to find a pair of cruelty-free, ethical or eco-friendly sandals and flip-flops to add to your summer wardrobe. No need to search high and low, we’ve curated this list just for you. Whatever your tastes, style preferences and budget, whether you’re after a classic Roman style, a sandal with a simple ankle strap or gladiator sandals, we hope this list cuts your search time in half so you’re not spending your glorious summer days shopping online lol!
1. Brave Soles
Founded by Christal Earle in the spring of 2017, Brave Soles is a social enterprise that produces a stylish range of handmade sandals from leather and hand-cut recycled tire soles and materials. The brand aims to help break the cycle of poverty and empower communities in developing countries through expanding economic opportunities, ethical trade and job creation. Brave Soles footwear is responsibly made in the Dominican Republic.
A wide range of classic styles including slip on, single ankle strapped sandals and gladiator. Most styles come in the staple colours of black, caramel and natural. Produces footwear for women, men and kids.
2. Nisolo
Nisolo produces beautiful, expertly crafted footwear and sandals using premium quality leather. When the business was founded in 2011, it partnered with a handful of expert shoemakers in Peru. Since then, Nisolo has grown to 120 employees who are all paid fair wages and offered good working conditions in the company’s Peru factory. The brand also gives back; for every Nisolo product sold, a contribution is made to organisation Ecosphere+ to offset carbon emissions and help protect the Amazon Rainforest.
3. Ahimsa
Ahimsa is a vegan footwear brand that prioritises compassionate living. Demonstrating its love and respect for all living beings, their contemporary footwear comes with zero side of animal products and animal cruelty. Ethically handcrafted in Brazil. Ahimsa also provides free worldwide shipping.
The business creates classic style sandals but they do offer
4. Sunday Tracker
Although not a footwear brand per so, Sunday Tracker is an Australian e-commerce site stocking some of the most stylish, ethically and sustainably-produced sandals. This isn’t just your ordinary women’s online shop, it’s highly selective in what it chooses to stock so you’re guaranteed a carefully curated store filled with unique, head-turning vibrant fashion accessories. The business does a brilliant job in capturing the joy of summer and happy Sunday feels by the beach. Its selection of sandals are handcrafted from leather by skilled artisans. We’re especially loving their pompom sandals; these will have people turning heads and asking, Where did you get that from?
Sunday Tracker offers Afterpay.
5. RAFA
RAFA is an American women’s high-end vegan shoe label that designs and expertly handcrafts its collection in Los Angeles. The shoes are an ode to slow fashion, sustainably produced by hand in a factory of 20 expert artisans. While we’re focussed on their sandals offerings for this list, you will find they stock a gorgeous range of boots, heels and flats as well.
RAFA shoes are ideal for style-seeking vegans that have no budget restrictions, want a designer sandal that offers elegance and luxury.
6. Indosole
Indosole is a high-quality but very affordable vegan footwear brand turning waste into desirable fashion. It creates thongs (flip flops) and stylish slides from locally sourced recycled materials such as tyres and animal-free materials for men and women. The brand also scores well on the fashion ratings app Good On You with a ‘Good’ rating. This is a footwear brand that caters to outdoor lovers, surfers, adventurers, travellers and sustainable lifestyle practitioners.
The footwear come in a range of staple colours such as white, black, granite, navy and brown (soil). Indosole produces footwear for both men and women.
7. Bourgeois Boheme
Rated ‘Good’ by Good On You, this UK brand is another wonderful option for vegan sandal seekers. Bourgeois Boheme produces simple, stylish cruelty-free slides that are made from Pinatex (pineapple leaf fibre material) and other animal-product free materials. The footwear is ethically-made and handcrafted in Portugal. Its neutral colour is ideal for partnering with your fave casual outfits, whether a tank top and denim skirt, linen jumpsuit or your beach outfit. These are summer must-haves that will have your non-vegan friends and family wanting to buy a pair too! Produces sandals for men and women.
8. El Naturalista
With over 20 years in manufacturing conscious footwear, Spanish company El Naturalista is the real deal when it comes to responsible business. Inspired by nature, this brand creates footwear for conscious travellers, nature lovers and outdoorsy types. The shoe brand produces vegan and non-vegan sandals to accommodate all customers’ ethical preferences. Its footwear is made with innovative fabrics such as bamboo, recycled plastics, premium wools and much more.
All El Naturalista shoes are ethically produced in-house, in their factories located in Spain and Morocco, the company also offers a two-year warranty on all footwear. Produces shoes for men, women and kids.
9. Deux Mains
This conscious footwear brand produces stylish, affordable and eco-friendly sandals and accessories in Haiti. Deux Mains sources materials and fabrics locally such as upcycled tires for its soles through to leather for its uppers. The production takes place in their 100% solar powered factory minimising its environmental impact further. Some sandals come in a more than one colour and usually staple colours like black and camel. If you prefer classic colours, make sure to check to see if your fave style comes in those colours.
So far, the brand has saved over 8,100 tires from ending up in landfills, has invested over a million dollars in the local economy through job creation and business expansion and has offered over 414,000 hours of employment to workers.
10. Po-Zu
Po-Zu creates ethically-sourced, responsibly-made eco-friendly footwear made from carefully selected natural and sustainable materials such as cork, Pinatex, organic cotton and wool just to name a few. The brand also holds strict labour standards so that across the supply chain, worker welfare is prioritised and not compromised. The brand has achieved quality assurances from certifiers Positive Luxury and included in The Good Shopping Guide. Po-Zu manufactures footwear for men and women with eco-friendly materials such as cork and Pinatex.
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Recommending reading:
- 11 Ethical Brands Producing Organic Activewear, Yoga Wear and Athleisure Clothing
- 9 Sustainable and Ethical ‘Made in USA’ Brands For the Stylish Shopper
- Where to Find High-Performance Ethical and Eco-Friendly Running Shoes and Cross Trainers
- 10 Affordable Eco-Friendly and Ethical Underwear Brands For Women and Men (USD $29 or Less)
- 10 Online Clothing Rental Places So You Can Sustainably Indulge in Your Love of Fashion
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All prices are correct at time of publishing. This curated list does not fully take into account all the ethical considerations that are unique to each individual. Before making a purchase, we encourage you to do your own research paying particular attention to the supply chain and your own particular set of ethics. You can also check out online tools and apps that provide product reviews and brand ratings here. This list also includes affiliate links. Click here to read more about our policies.
Title image credit: Brave Soles.
