Space Hippie SIOC

Space Hippie is an exploratory footwear collection inspired by life on Mars—where materials are scarce and there is no resupply mission. Created from scraps, or “space junk,” Space Hippie is the result of sustainable practices meeting radical design.

We’re working to ditch the double box, and ship Space Hippie shoes in a single shoebox made with at least 90% recycled content.

“Space Hippie was the jumping off point,” says Erica Swanson from sustainable product operations. “We wanted to have an innovative system that shipped a shoe in its own container, rather than shipping a box within another box.”
So when you buy one pair of shoes online, this eliminates an entire box from your order — and your recycling bin. Sounds simple, but like any industry-leading concept, it would take a lot of work to bring to fruition.

Test and Learn

“It was meant to be a limited release. So we said, ‘Let’s be daring and try something we’re not sure is going to work,’” says Rich of the sneaker collection that shipped in its own oblong shoebox.

“But the shoes were so popular, we had to scale up and fast. We got a lot of feedback that the box wasn’t durable enough to withstand the rigors of shipping, so we got to work updating it based on those learnings.”