My first trip to London ever was in 2007. During that trip, one of my first impressions of the city was stepping London Underground and thinking “The subways here are so much nicer than in New York!” The seats were comfortable, people were less rude, it was rush hour coming from the suburbs into the main city area and yet still, they weren’t obnoxiously crowded. I couldn’t believe it!
Apparently though, if you’d been able to visit the city earlier than I, another thing that would also stick out clearly in your mind would be the bright, bold patterns of fabric which the seats were covered in. Now, those fabrics are being given a new life, as shoes.
Using reclaimed fabric from the 50s-90s, Above + Below London churns out ultra-original eco-conscious fashionable sneakers similar to Chuck Taylors. Each shoe is handmade using leather from old check book wallets for the uppers and rubber from used car tires for the soles at two family-run small factories in Portugal.
In addition to the shoes themselves, they’ve specifically designed their site to look like a dark tunnel so that it uses less power to load and they’ve teamed up with Love London and Trees for Cities so that one tree will be planted along the M25 highway in London for every pair sold.
(found via Inhabitat)
