Launched in 2011, Womsh (Word Of Mouth Shoes) is an Italian sustainable shoe company, specialising in trainers/sneakers. All their shoes are designed, produced and packaged in Italy, and they opt for environmentally friendly materials. While the brand is not vegan, they have recently revealed an entire vegan line with several different styles, so there’s something for everyone here. I hope that people will support Womsh in their venture into vegan footwear, so they can see how profitable vegan fashion is, and hopefully, one day only stock vegan shoes!

Womsh has been taking part in Zero Impact®, a project aimed at compensating for CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere as a result of any activity, product or service. They also support Treedom a project that allows you to plant a tree somewhere in the world, name it and watch it grow. I was so happy when I found out that for every pair of sneakers that are purchased from the vegan line, Womsh gives you a code to plant your own tree!

My tree was a cacao tree planted in Cameroon – so cool! 55 kg of CO2 will be absorbed by planting this tree, the equivalent of the average amount produced by one person in 4 days.

I also love that Womsh shoes can be recycled after the end of the product’s life and turned into something else. Circular design is the best way to make fashion more sustainable. 

Womsh’s vegan line has been created using apple leather, made by fellow Italian company, Frumat. They developed a material called Pellemela, made using apple fibres from food-production waste. Currently the material composition is 50% apple skin and 50% polyurethane, but hopefully they can continue to develop this so it can be 100% apple in the future! Apple leather is a fantastic plant-based leather alternative, and I’m excited to see it becoming available to the fashion industry. 

I chose the vegan wave white rose style as I’ve been observing this ‘ugly sneaker’ trend and really felt drawn to the aesthetics of a chunky shoe with the street style aspect too. Of course, that’s not to say these shoes are in anyway ugly, just that they seem to fall into that category in today’s fashion market. This particular style has sold out twice since I became aware of the vegan line, so they must be extremely popular. They’re currently back in stock if you’re wondering…

The upper fabric is the apple leather, the lining is cotton and the sole is rubber, making this trainer nearly plastic-free. This isn’t something we see often in the vegan fashion world, as most leather alternatives rely on plastic material to provide the right texture and strength. 

I had so much fun styling these and wearing them around Bristol, they’re so comfy and durable, and clearly are very well made. Keep an eye on my Instagram feed for these babies featuring in my upcoming outfits!