After years of hearing about the lack of comfortable yet sustainable shoe insoles we set out to create exactly that product!
The insoles that came with your favourite pair of shoes are probably paper-thin right now. Go on, take them out and see for yourself. You see, insoles wear out. And when they do, it's time to throw them away. On a landfill somewhere, where traditional synthetic insoles will stay for generations. Over a 100 million of them every year.
How it all started
"I have always been very active and wanted something comfortable to walk on. It existed: specialty socks, synthetic insoles, you name it. And so I spent a lot of money on all of the aforementioned. However, something was missing, and I saw this in many companies I had worked with in the past. Accountability. Responsibility. Transparency. Companies only cared about one thing and one thing only: bottom line. I wanted to change that. But how does one person change anything? By doing.
So I thought of something different, something comfortable, something light, something easy to ship, natural. Something that does not harm the planet, that speaks to people's basic necessities, that an older population can benefit from, that a healthier focused population can benefit from. Something that must be affordable. Something created from nature that can benefit every person and that can be fully recycled: natural shoe insoles.
I had no idea about cork insoles at the time, the only thing I realized is that I might be on to something as I had previously worked in a fast growing mattress company where I learned one thing: people LOVE comfort. Comfort above sustainability. But what if I could somehow manage to be sustainable? I developed my idea further and researched raw materials, market, competition, industry, demand, supply. I started narrowing towards product specifics, geographical regions, suppliers even. I made a simple excel with six or seven targets to call - and appointments were made. Things were getting real and I booked my ticket to Porto, Portugal, where I arrived on October 10th." - David, PRIMAL Soles founder
Maximum Comfort. Minimal Footprint.
