Customer succes story: MIRET ecological sneakers certified by OEKO-TEX®

1. What is your philosophy and strategy to produce your products? What is special about your certified product?

• Our philosophy:
  We believe that the responsibility of choosing sustainable alternatives should not fall on the consumer. It is our duty as a brand to develop and offer products that contribute to the solution.
• Our strategy:
  To replace traditionally used materials like leather and petroleum-derived materials while meeting all of the major requirements in footwear like comfort, durability, protection and style with the end goal of producing a sneaker that will have the least possible impact on the environment during its entire life cycle.
• What is special about our certified product:
  Our sneakers are composed out of 97% natural (carbon-based) materials and show there is a viable sustainable alternative to traditional footwear products.

2. What are your reasons for becoming OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 certified?

As a sustainable footwear brand, we are often challenged by our consumers, investors and media to scientifically back our sustainability claims. Therefore, we wanted to get a third party certificate that independently, scientifically and objectively backs our claim that our sneakers contain zero toxic chemicals harmful to human health.

3. What are the advantages for you?

“When developing products at MIRET we try to be as close to nature as possible. Being friendly to the environment is our primary driver, but closeness to nature also means caring for humans and human health. With the STANDARD 100 certification we have confirmation that we have achieved this goal. “

Hrvoje Boljar, Co-founder and CTO

4. What were the challenges in getting your products OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 certified?

Shoes are much more complex to manufacture than it seems. They are made out of many different components and materials with specific functions. Our greatest challenge was to source and develop materials which are not toxic to human health and to the environment. The greatest challenge in OEKO-TEX® certification was to certify each and every component separately in order to certify the entire shoe.

5. How do you comment on your experience in working with OETI during the certification process?

We have developed an open and transparent communication with OETI and like that we have created a productive and goal-oriented workflow. The OETI team was most helpful and focused on the success of the project.