We don't need to hark on about why we should all be thinking more sustainably – there's enough news about the climate crisis to clearly tell us that – but even for the best of us, we still need a nudge in the environmentally friendly direction to make the changes that'll better our planet.

In this day and age, a reusable coffee cup is no longer your get-out-of-jail-free-card for acting sustainably in other areas of your life. Now more than ever, we need to be putting our green thinking caps on and addressing how we can buy more sustainably with the clothes we wear, the beauty we put on our skin and the ornaments we place in our homes. So, this September, we're doing exactly that.

Our new 'Sustainable September' series will be highlighting the best sustainably-minded products and brands that range over fashion, beauty and homeware, everyday throughout the month, showing that there are earth-affable options that you can opt for. Today, we're looking at eco-friendly brand, YATAY, and their chic sustainable trainer line.


We all say YAY for YATAY!

Gone are the days when trainers were reserved solely for the gym. Today, they are the most versatile pair of shoes you’ll find in your wardrobe, with the ability to pair every iteration with literally anything; slouchy suit, dress or a pair of jeans, you name it. Yet, our favourite accessory is producing a particularly large and unpleasant footprint; of the 20 billion pairs of shoes produced globally each year, 95% ends up in landfill sites. We don’t have time for that frankly, and neither does YATAY, a trainer brand that is making strides with their luxury vegan trainers.



We’ve been enamoured with YATAY ever since they leaped onto the scene in 2018. With a mission to “make sustainability cool”, the founder Umberto de Marco has been applying this philosophy to everything. Influenced by street style, YATAY mixes shapes from the skate scene and the basket ball arena, while the colour palette pulls in inspiration from nature; with soft hues of coral sea foam, to bolder shades of red and khaki green. Each shoe is made sustainably, and after two and a half years of research and development, YATAY discovered a way to employ “bio-polyols” – a polymers extracted from cereals – as an alternative to leather (which are usually oil based). 

De Marco’s YATAY is produced with 100% environmentally friendly materials; constructed from repurposed components, including waste foam and recycled rubber, all of their trainers use the signature organic cotton and Italian hemp laces. But the brand doesn’t stop there, YATAY also have a great initiative where they plant a tree for every pair sold in their own forest in Kenya. Invested? So are we! When it’s time to say au revoir to them, you can return your pair back to YATAY to be recycled, proving that fashion truly can be circular. Finally.

Shop the YATAY:


More More More!

+ Sustainable September: Evermore

+ Sustainable September: Beauty Kubes

Surprise Me!