New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Project category

Identify the award category for which this project is being submitted
Shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking

Email user
fela@salubataofficial.com

Basic information
Project title
SALUBATA

Full Project Title
Modular shoes from recycled plastic waste

Please provide a short, catchy description of your project to be used in communication towards the public.
At SALUBATA, we occupy a niche where we repurpose shoes from ocean deemed plastic wastes. These shoes are modular and saves over 70% of manufacturing energy and are designed to be recycled. Our near goal is to reach a critical mass of 1 million shoes that are made from old plastic bottle wastes, recollect the shoes and recycle them back into other shoes; thus attaining a closed loop system where zero waste escapes. With this model, we believe we can stamp out plastic pollution in its entirety.

What was the geographical scope of your project?
Cross-border/international

Where was your project implemented?
Location 1
France

Location 2
Portugal

Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries
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If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
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Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your project benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your project won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Is your project fully completed
Yes

Please indicate a date (mm/yy)
2022-07-05

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): SALUBATA SAS
  Type of organisation: For-profit company
  First name of representative: Fela
  Last name of representative: Akinse
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: France
  Function: CEO
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 34, avenue des Champs-Elysées 75008 Paris
  Town: Paris
  Postal code: 75008
  Country: France
  Direct Tel: +33745665952
  E-mail: fela@salubataofficial.com
  Website: https://www.salubataofficial.com
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/salubata/
- URL: https://www.linkedin.com/company/salubataofficial/mycompany/?viewAsMember=true
- URL: https://twitter.com/SalubataX
In case my project is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my project in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites

Description of the project
Please provide a summary of your project.
At SALUBATA, our mission is to invent lifestyle technologies that help people and the planet. We currently occupy a niche where we repurpose shoes from ocean-deemed plastic wastes. In a year alone, there are over 381 million tonnes of plastic wastes produced. Sadly only about 9% of these wastes have ever been recycled. My team and I possess a background in environmental science and in shoes design. So, we started imagining if we could convert all of these plastic wastes into footwear. We also realised that the potential for impact is huge. The global footwear market in 5 years will be worth over 564 billion Euros.
We also want to show the economic potential of such solutions. The global footwear and lifestyle markets are huge. It’s our mission to provide quality shoes and lifestyle products that help people and the planet while making a profit. We show what value you can create by integrating design, environment, education and profit. We believe our message will inspire many other startups around the globe to be able to jump on projects that can foster prosperity on and for our planet.
We also realised that we wouldn’t have a real impact if we didn’t help the communities around us, because the downhill impact of these pollutants affects the people in underserved communities the most, especially women. So we decided to commit 5% of the profits coming from every shoe to the cause of empowering women in these communities.

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words.
Plastic recycling

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Circular economy

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Sustainable consumption

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Clean technology

Please indicate the main themes of your project with key words
Green economy

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Objective : Create the lowest carbon footprint in our industry
KR1: carbon offset technology to line and
Supply chain and shipping infrastructure 100% zero waste.
KR2: Pay 100% carbon offset for Apply calculated carbon dioxide emissions.
KR3: 75% of material is compostable.
KR4: 100% of material is biodegradable.
KR5: Raise capacity for effective climate change-related planning by 10%

SALUBATA provides shoes made from recycled plastics with interchangeable (modular components which enables us avoid over 70% of manufacturing energy) components instead of recycled plastics shoes. At our current bootstrapped rate of 6000 pairs of shoes, the difference in impact is calculated per five years and the total impact of SALUBATA per five years is calculated for 30000 times 25 of pair of shoes worn by a person in 5 years. Impact per 25 of pair of shoes worn by a person in 5 years is –145.9 kgCO2e in 5 years would mean impact of 30000 times 25 of pair of shoes worn by a person in 5 years to avoid –255t CO2e. Scaling manufacturing to 100,000 shoes per annum would mean we would be able to avoid over - 127,500,000t CO2e in 5 years

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Rothy's and Adidas also make shoes from recycled plastics while ACBC produces modular shoes that are not made from recycled plastics. Salubata is a merge of Rothy's + Adidas and ACBC; our shoes are not only made from recycled plastic wastes but also modular - customisable shoes from recycled plastics intended to fit your dynamic lifestyle.
- We have 2 patents on our invention
- Our shoes are not only made from plastic wastes but are also modular (customisable)
- Our shoes are breathable (shoes are constantly aerated to keep your feet from smelling)
- No need to smear your hands while trying to wash the shoes (at most, you can dry-clean shoes i.e shoes can be thrown in a washing machine)
- Soles are flexible (bends according to desire)
- Our shoes reduces volume of luggage our customers carry - the modular nature of the shoes allows this.
- Cost efficient: our customers get our shoes at prices 75% less than those of competitors
- Our customers feel cool while wearing our shoes - the modular nature
- Emotional connection - our customers have a feeling of saving the environment.
- Offers a more pleasurable experience to customers as the insoles are infused with the air bubble technology intended to fit our customer's dynamic lifestyle and healthful needs

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context.
Objective : Introduce more formal measurement while increasing transparency. Move the needle on underrepresented groups in leadership.
KR1: Identify 4 professional organizations focused on advancing underrepresented leaders to establish key partnerships.
KR2: Run surveys to have diversity data by level & team. Publish Diversity Data across key leadership teams.
KR3: Increase our Diverse slate approach for our leadership searches of Chief Revenue Officer and other Directors and above hires by 2x diverse pipeline with a focus on underrepresented representation.
KR4: - Increase underrepresented communities by 40% of manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment
KR5: Contribute up to 1% of manufacturing value added as a proportion of GDP and per capita in the European Union

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the project and civil society have been involved in the project and what has been the impact of this involvement on the project
We also realised that we wouldn’t have a real impact if we didn’t help the communities around us, because the downhill impact of these pollutants affects the people in underserved communities the most, especially women. So we decided to commit 5% of the profits coming from every shoe to the cause of empowering women in these communities. With our plan to target 5% of the global footwear market and create revenues of 132 million dollars per year, we would be able to contribute 6.6 million of our profits to the cause of helping women every year. And we would also offset over 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the project. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was.
We collaborate with recycling companies who help to collect these ocean-deemed old plastic bottles and sort them. For every 5% that is dedicated to empowering women in underserved communities, we use these funds to train them in the art of footwear design and manufacturing and employ them as our staff.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your project. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was.
Environmental toxicology and pollution management - does overall assessment of the impact for material, environment and on humans
Environmental law - ensures compliance with environmental regulation and standards
Design - primarily a mix of environmental design and application to real life human situations. Design also ensures all materials used during these process are sustainable
Business strategy - outlines unique value proposition and ensures sustainability of the project for profitability

Please give information on the results, outcomes and impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for. This includes also benefits from the project for direct and indirect beneficiaries
We have bootstrapped to sell over 6000 modular shoes repurposed from ocean plastics.
We won the 2022 Hack the Normal Sustainability prize (circular economy) and Crane technologies sustainability prize. We have recently partnered with Amazon to warehouse and sell our products in 7 EU markets including the UK. We've also partnered with Faire to gain access to over 500,000 retailers. To grow our B2C component, we have also partnered with a logistics partner (BigBlue) who also warehouses our products - we expend zero cost on warehousing

Impacts:
- Job Creation
- Communal CO2 reduction
- Raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning

Impact indicators:
- CO2 emission per unit of value added
- Manufacturing employment as a proportion of total employment
- Manufacturing value added as a proportion of GDP and per capita

Please provide documents showing the results, outcomes and impacts of your project
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-2317.pdf
Please highlight the innovative character of the project, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the project
Rothy's and Adidas also make shoes from recycled plastics while ACBC produces modular shoes that are not made from recycled plastics. Salubata is a merge of Rothy's + Adidas and ACBC; our shoes are not only made from recycled plastic wastes but also modular - customisable shoes from recycled plastics intended to fit your dynamic lifestyle.
- We own two patents on our invention
- Our shoes are not only made from plastic wastes but are also modular (customisable)
- Our shoes are breathable (shoes are constantly aerated to keep your feet from smelling)
- No need to smear your hands while trying to wash the shoes (at most, you can dry-clean shoes i.e shoes can be thrown in a washing machine)
- Soles are flexible (bends according to desire)
- Our shoes reduces volume of luggage our customers carry - the modular nature of the shoes allows this.
- Cost efficient: our customers get our shoes at prices 75% less than those of competitors
- Our customers feel cool while wearing our shoes - the modular nature
- Emotional connection - our customers have a feeling of saving the environment.
- Offers a more pleasurable experience to customers as the insoles are infused with the air bubble technology intended to fit our customer's dynamic lifestyle and healthful needs

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your project.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention is in the field of improvement in shoe design construction particularly with modular shoes made from ocean-deemed PET plastic wastes, i.e., plastic wastes that would possibly eventually find their ways into the oceans.
BACKGROUND ART
Many existing shoes are not made from recyclable materials and those which are made from recyclable materials, particularly from plastic wastes, are not modular in nature.
A modular shoe generally comprises interchangeable sole and skin parts that are detachably mounted to each other, for example with a zip, and may thus be combined depending on the needs of a user for a specific appearance and/or for the choice of an adapted sole for a specific terrain.
Recycling has become an important environmental argument for saving resources and prevent waste from being randomly dispersed in nature. Various constituents for making soles and skin may comprise recycled PET, foam and/or rubber.
As is often the case with plastic wearables, there is a need for an efficient breathing mechanism to prevent odor developing from sweat that is not properly evacuated from the wearable. Various solutions exist to tackle this issue, including sophisticated ventilating mechanisms built in the sole or openings punched in the skin of a shoe. Departing from the discussed prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an alternative environmental and user-friendly modular shoe.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present invention provides a modular shoe comprising a sole part and a skin part, and zipper means to detachably mount the sole part and the skin part to each other, wherein the skin part comprises a breathable yarn pattern configured to render the skin part breathable and to prevent odour development in the modular shoe, and the yarn comprises recycled PET plastic.

Please describe which elements of your project could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and context. This may involve for example aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings etc.
Our technology is patented and we currently have a franchise partner. Our intellectual property is transferable and we intend to localise the impacts by licensing our patents to brands, manufacturers and franchisees.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addresses by providing local solutions
The plastic plague around the world is visible and inescapable. In a year alone, there are over 381 million tonnes of plastic wastes produced. Sadly only about 9% of these wastes have ever been recycled. My team and I possess a background in environmental science and in shoes design. So, we started imagining if we could convert all of these plastic wastes into footwear. We also realised that the potential for impact is huge. The global footwear market in 5 years will be worth over $564 billion. The modular design of our shoes enables more customers to wear more shoes from plastic wastes; which is more solid wastes generated. Our near goal is to reach a critical mass of 1 million shoes per annum. With this we'd be able to close the waste loop even from our shoes by recollecting the shoes my local recycling partners in our regions of scale while converting these shoes into another shoes. Our near goal in 5 years is to reach 1% of the global footwear market. Thus, leading to:
Offseting 82 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (saving an equivalent of 6.5 billion barrels of crude oil)
Convert 6 billion PET plastic wastes to shoes
Empowering 282,000 women
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images (or other types of visual representations, if images are not possible) to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed project has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the project and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their projects, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted project, is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes