Folding Travel Sneakers that Dont Crease: Materials Tech Makes it possible. Put in Carryon or Backpack

I created this product out of necessity. I prefer to travel with only a carryon, but whenever I would travel to a destination wedding I would have to check in luggage just because my shoes would take up most of my carryon space. So I found it frustrating to have to spend money on checked luggage just because of my shoes. The problem with folding or flattening your typical leather shoe is that the toe and heel counters, which are used to help the shoe keep it's structure, is made specifically to prevent the shoe from collapsing, so they are not very resilient. The second problem is that if you do collapse a shoe repeatedly, it will cause creases in the leather. We solved both of these problems in Italy. We made a leather shoe that can be collapsed and at the same time doesn't crease. The secret is in our innovative use of polymers in our toe & heel counters. Our travel shoes are made using eco-friendly toe and heel counters made of innovative recycled polymers that give them highly resilient and long-lasting shape retention characteristics. It’s what makes the "pop" possible. The production of our counters results in no waste because production scraps are regenerated and fully recycled into the production cycle. To fully utilize the resiliency of the counter, we had to solve the creasing problem. So, we paired the counters with sustainably raised full grain water buffalo leather. Buffalo leather is soft and flexible yet stronger and more durable than cow leather. It’s incredible elasticity allows it to be bent and folded without permanent creasing. The result is a beautiful and versatile shoe & sneaker that can be worn with a suit or even a pair of shorts. Best of all, they can collapse to 2 inches and go easily in your carryon, backpack, or even weekender bag. I hope that you enjoy the project!