Hiya,
We can smell the pumpkin spice and apple cinnamon already coursing through the air. It’s September, y’all, and with that we have a lot of exciting things to look forward to. The cooler sweater weather for one, the Trader Joe’s fall specials, and also all the updates coming to The Verticale website. Our team has been working overboard to relaunch and you’ll be in for a treat soon ????
In the meantime, enjoy our cute fun adorable world breaking (?!?) newsletter designed to curate some of our favorite products, places, and just things to do. This week we’re talking about how to 3D print shoes, how fast fashion is fueling human right’s crises, and buckling down for fall.
Hopefully this will be a better companion than that final summer white claw✨ (enjoy it while you can, but we’ll be switching to red wine and hot toddies soon). See you here, every Wednesday.
-Jaclyn + Michelle, Founders
Busy Doing What?: Our Founders Keeping it Real
Jaclyn’s Busy…
- Trying a new ALCOHOLIC ICE CREAM spot in Meatpacking (we’re talking a shot’s worth of Casamigos Tequila per scoop)????
- Reading up on how fast fashion’s need for Xinjiang Cotton is feeding a human right’s crises
- Losing my sunglasses and delving through the internet to find a new fall-worthy pair ????
- Tasting my way through Rome with this new LES rustic italian restaurant: Forsythia ????????
Michelle’s Busy…
- Shaking my head at the disgrace that is Texas’s new abortion laws.
- Moving our team to a REAL co-working space in Soho! Meaning my wallet will now be crying with all the happy hour drinks & shopping ????
- Meeting all the new members of our team– grateful and happy for all of you!
- Spending Friday poolside, layering on sunscreen (b/c it’s a must!) ☀️
Diving Deep: Something you didn’t know about 3D Printed Shoes– how they’re reducing waste and revolutionizing slow fashion.
Hilos is bringing the clog back and they’re doing it in a new way. Who would have thought that the secret behind sustainable, 100% recyclable, waste free shoes, would be a clog? That is the question Hilos is answering with their shoe which is carefully crafted for a comfy fit, and also carefully designed to be taken apart and recycled when you’re done with them.
The circular lifespan of this shoe, and its ode to non fast fashion, is possible through the use of 3D printing. You remember those machines, right? The ones that were gonna change the world and 3D print organs? Well, they got it right.
Hilos prints a woven mesh of lattice that creates a flexible and soft platform akin to that of a sneaker (but, you know, cuter). Every shoe is made-to-order and 3D printed for each individual person, so there’s no waste. Because of this each pair uses 85% less water than your other shoes (about 1,700 gallons per pair).
Now to get down and dirty with 3D printing. Hilos uses Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and TPU materials (a type of polyurethane plastics) for their shoes. SLS was developed in the 80s and is unique in its use of powder bed fusion tech. SLS allows for multi-type of materials to be utilized during the 3D printing process (from polymers to metals) all thanks to the use of a CO2 laser.
SLS doesn’t need intermediate binder or an assembly stage, and is designed using CAD software. Each layer is heated and fused together with the materials to achieve the desired shapes. And TADA, shoes!
When you think of it in the large scheme of things, 24 billion shoes are made per year, using 48 trillion gallons of fresh water, and 1 in every 5 pairs goes straight to a landfill.
See ya next week, same time same place.
