I have always been passionate about sneakers because I have been skateboarding since I was a child, and sneakers are an important part of this culture. I will never forget the first pair I bought for myself. They are a pair of navy blue and yellow éS “Diodes”. I remember wearing them when I was going to school in Ontario, Canada. Everyone was impressed because they were really great sneakers.
But my big plan when I grow up is to Disney, So I actually learn animation. But when I entered this industry, I realized that many jobs are based on contracts, so it is difficult to be hired all the time.
Then, in 2009, my uncle called me and asked if I wanted to see what his job was. He said he thought I would like it because I am a social person. I know he is an interesting uncle with many great stories, but it was only then that I found him selling shoes.
My initial reaction was that I didn’t want to be a shoe salesman. I always wanted to be this great animator or creator of a TV show. I don’t want to be a person who tries to bargain with people everywhere. But my uncle took me to make all these sales calls, and it turned out to be a lot of talking and hanging out, and in the end I was in charge of a brand that was connected to the skateboarding community, so it was pretty cool.
After that, I worked for a fashion brand for seven years and started to notice that all the sneakers produced by this company have EVA or TPR outsoles, which are basically made of plastic. I started to research and found that more than 20 billion pairs of sports shoes are produced every year. If they cannot be decomposed, most of them will eventually be landfilled, so we have a very big problem at hand.
I want to work hard to change this. This is the idea of the Johnny brand. There are some fully biodegradable shoes, and many companies are turning to green. But I found that the green shoes produced by the footwear company did not impress me very well. I want something completely biodegradable. You can still wear it with any clothes. People still think it is a great pair of shoes without noticing that it is biodegradable.
My initial idea was actually to launch a sandal, I think I can easily make hundreds of them to make them truly affordable and have a greater impact. But I began to realize that the Canadian sandals market is very limited, we only have about two months of summer each year. So I continued to create a slide, and then different fashionable sandals, and then about two and a half years ago, I turned to sneakers, anyway, this is really where my heart lies. Sports shoes represent my culture and what I have been wearing. I started to adjust the design, and after five iterations, the prototype was ready.
Luc Hall
I wish I had a cool story about apple tree seeds, but I actually just drove to Ottawa to visit a friend. I was discussing the idea of biodegradability, and not all biodegradable products are very successful. I want to know what I can do to change it, while considering how you need to plant the shoes in the ground so that they can decompose.
It suddenly occurred to me that if you have to plant sneakers in the ground anyway, why not put a tree seed on the sole of your shoe and let it grow into a tree? There are several good things about this. First, it draws attention to the biodegradability of sports shoes, but it also helps offset your carbon footprint. You help the environment by creating more oxygen. My only problem is that not all seeds will germinate, this is just a part of nature. So that’s why we also promise to plant a tree for each pair sold to ensure that we offset our carbon footprint correctly.
People have asked whether apple trees will grow in a landfill if people throw away their shoes, and the idea of planting a bunch of apple trees in a landfill really makes me happy. But the fact is that landfills will compact everything, so the environment will suffocate apple tree seeds. The shoes will still rot, but the tree will not sprout. It will be buried under a large amount of metric tons of dirt and other rubbish.
Our biggest challenge is to let people know that shoes will not biodegrade on their feet. To decompose shoes, a mixture of moisture and constant pressure needs to be kept underground for a long time, so people don’t have to worry about it. We asked a third party to test the sneakers, and they told us that they will be 53% biodegradable after 18 months and completely biodegradable after three years. But it depends on the climate the shoes are in. If you grow them in the Arizona desert, they may not be biodegradable because it is too dry.
Luc Hall
When you wear them, they will function like any other sports shoes. We have modeled that they should last about three years, although some people wear shoes faster than others. It is almost equivalent to ordinary sports shoes, but it depends on how you wear them. I wear sneakers throughout the year because I wear them every day, and my boots have been worn for five years because I only wear them 20 days a year.
Everything should have been launched a year ago, but then a pandemic happened. As soon as COVID hits, the two factories I queued up can no longer produce for me, so I am a bit stuck. But I have a good friend who works in China, and he helped me start working again.
Johnny sneakers are currently available in two colors, black and white, both for men and women. Eventually we hope to create a children’s size. If you promise through our Kickstarter, the sneakers will be shipped to your home before August 2022. I want to eventually get involved in different types of footwear. We want to go on the market, but we still need to understand the size and other small details to finalize it. It still takes from here to August to be completely correct.
I think that, like most creative people, as long as you have an exit, this is the most important thing. Whether I am creating shoes or art, both are satisfying in different ways. I am also a painter, now I can own that outlet and enjoy it instead of working.
I recently quit my job to work on this project full-time; I jumped in with my feet to see what we can do with this. But I don’t even think about where it goes in terms of money. The most important thing for me is to change the industry. Many of us do our part when it comes to recycling, reduction and reuse, but in order to truly achieve impactful change, we need to influence the industry to change.
As long as you are passionate about something, good things will follow. What I really want to do is show everyone that we can do things differently and do better.
Luc Houle is the founder of Johnny, a biodegradable footwear company.you can Learn more and order a pair of sneakers here.
All views expressed in this article are the author’s own views.
As told to Jenny Howard.
