Clothes...

Well-made ethical footwear (and any other -wear) can be so prohibitively expensive, not to mention not even very attractively designed, that I wonder how well it really sells. How many disgruntled consumers just go to their local Payless and buy seven pairs of petrochemical confection for the same price of one pair from the eco brand? Not that I, uh, have ever done that, of course.

Ahem.

Considering that, this is pretty great news, from the Terra Plana website:

Due to extraordinary demand we are sold out of Vivo Barefoot in the USA. We are furiously making more shoes and will have more Vivo Barefoot available in July.

(I love picturing shoemakers furiously toiling away.)

Vivo Barefoot is Terra Plana's line based on the studies that have shownn that walking barefoot is best for the health of the body. (Put a what's-in-it -for-me spin on it, and products can sometimes become more popular.) The durable soles are supposedly so thin you can feel what kind of terrain you're walking on, just like if you were barefoot. The company aims to use as many recycled materials as they can, from parachutes to old coats to soiling materials (we don't know what that last one is, either). They also use chrome-free leathers, vegetable tanned leathers, recycled rubber soles, recycled foam foot beds, and and minimal glue.

Another probable contributor to the high demand: they are cute.