Allbirds advertises their shoes as “wool” but it’s really a proprietary fiber made from wool and undisclosed ingredients.

Question from Heather

Hi Debra,

I am wondering about Allbird shoes and your thoughts? I am desperately trying to find shoes for my kids and elements age boys in Seattle need good shoes. I love Pololo but only found one place in USA that sells them and sizes are slim. What are your thoughts?

Debra’s Answer

First, I see that in addition to this question, you also made some other comments, including that Campers have polyester and polyurethane in them.

As you have found, it’s very difficult to find shoes that are 100% natural and even if you find them, they are often not available or affordable.

Given the state of the market today, some product categories are better than others with regard to having toxic free products available.

Shoes are one of those categories.

You commented specifically that Campers have polyurethane and polyester. Not sure where the polyester is, but I believe the soles are polyurethane. I have a pair of Campers and I wear them almost everyday. I’ve actually been wearing Campers for years and have never had a problem with the release of any kind of odor from these shoes.

In terms of toxic materials used in shoes, I personally will accept polyester and polurethane in a vegetable-tanned shoe rather than wear a pair of shoes made with PVC or chemical-tanned leather which are much more toxic.

But you asked me about Allbirds.

Looking at their website I see that they have shoes made from “Wool” and other shoes made from “Tree.”

On their FAQ page they state that their “Wool” is “proprietary merino fabric…” Proprietary wool fabric. This sounds like wool mixed with some other material. And they are not going to tell you what it is. So it’s not 100% wool. And no information on chemicals that might be used in the raising of the sheep.

Their “Tree’ fiber is TENCEL(tm), a manmade fiber that is made from plant cellulose—in this case from trees—mixed with chemicals. The trees are from responsibly managed forests, but your body doesn’t recognize Tencel as a natural fiber because it isn’t.

So basically you have a company that is making shoes out of wool and tree turned into industrial fibers and marketing them as natural.

On their basic page about the shoe materials they state:

• their laces are 100% recycled polyester.
• insoles are their proprietary merino wool fabric (with undisclosed ingredients)
• the sole is “proprietary low-density foam” (again undisclosed ingredients). It’s pretty likely it’s polyurethane foam. I’m not concerned about the polyurethane, I’m concerned about the chemicals that are used to make it into foam.

I prefer Campers.

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