01.05.2020 | One key environmental aspect of products is their durability. This also applies to our LOWA footwear, all of which are known for their high quality and robustness. In addition, many of these shoes can be repaired in one way or another. By taking this step, we are making an active contribution to resource and environmental protection.
In today’s throw-away society, we replace many things much too quickly. We frequently forget that some things can actually be repaired. It is a possibility that will save us some money in comparison to a new purchase as well as conserve resources and protect the environment.
Our shoe repair shops at our home base in Jetzendorf, Germany, Interlaken, Switzerland, and St. Martin, Austria, are heavily used.
We resoled exactly
16.079 shoes
at our home base in Jetzendorf in 2019. A record! We had never resoled so many of our shoes before.
“With our repair service, we are responding to more and more customers’ desire for durable and, thus, sustainable products.”
— Arthur | LOWA Manager Service Department
To extend the lives of the LOWA shoes that have grown so dear to our hearts, the footwear needs good and regular care. Such care will enable the shoes to remain comfortable and resistant to soiling and water.
To prevent shoe care products from harming the environment unnecessarily, we have completely reworked our own line of care products and dropped all PFCs (polyfluorinated and perfluorinated chemicals). PFCs are a group of chemicals that are frequently used in outdoor and work clothing and as an impregnation solution because of their special properties – they repel water, grease and grime. These chemicals are far from being harmless. They are hardly degradable and remain in the environment for a long time. In our new care products, we have eliminated these chemicals and replaced them with harmless substances. The new product LOWA Shoe Clean is composed of up to 90 percent natural ingredients like bamboo.
We are frequently asked whether our LOWA footwear can be materially recycled. On the basis of today’s technology, it makes little sense from an energy point of view to recycle the footwear because the products are made of so many different materials. We regularly monitor developments in this area and incorporate any improvements here into our corporate responsibility strategy.