Swedish fashion giant H&M have teamed up with the London footwear brand Good News for a collaboration which focuses as much on sustainability as it does on style.
Good News X H&M is a unisex collection of seven trainers and one pair of sliders, all featuring the London footwear designer’s now signature retro styling.
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Each shoe is made in such a way as to minimise the environmental impact, utilising a range of more sustainable elements including organic and recycled cotton; recycled rubber soles; renewable TENCEL™ Lyocell cellulose fibres, Vegea™ and Bananatex® uppers.
An accompanying kids’ collection, meanwhile, features three styles and the same production methods and materials.
The result is a fit for the future collection which balances the environmentally friendly ethos of the makers with the quirky cool of the London footwear brand.
The sliders are one of the highlights of the collection. Featuring a series of multi coloured strips on the body, the shoes are bright, optimistic and totally now. The low top sneakers are another gem. With a pattern inspired by Portuguese mosaic tiles, the trainers are wonderfully bold, distinctive and perfect for everyday way.
In addition to the stylings on the individual trainers, each shoe features a half circle motif on the soul which has used to symbolise the ‘union of purpose’ between H&M and Good News.
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“This collection is vibrant and so much fun” says Good News co founder Ben Tattersall. “Sustainable materials have historically been seen as too hempy, too hippie. There’s a stigma attached to it. We wanted to create style and substance, pushing the boundaries to see what sneakers we can create through innovative materials”.
“Making this collection as sustainable as possible was important to us. We always tear up the rule book and do things a bit backwards. Rather than start with a trendy mood board or concept, we put the sustainable and innovative materials first. The available materials decide what we will create,” says fellow cofounder Nia Jones.
Tattersall and Jones founded Good News in 2016 after being horrified by the rampant waste that they witnessed in the fashion industry of the time. Resolving to create a better model of how a fashion brand could operate, the pair began set up Good News.
Today, the company is known just as much as for its retro styling and design nous as it is for its environmental credentials. Nonetheless, the H&M gig is clearly a big deal for the duo. Asked what they were most proud of regarding the collaboration, Jones replied:
“That we’ve managed to push one of the giants to look at every single component of a shoe. We’ve raised the bar together to bring about positive change.”
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H&M, for their part, were keen to work with Good News as the company fit the fashion giant’s ethos on sustainability.
“We wanted to team up with Good News because of their bold, positive expression and constant quest for circularity” says David Söderlund, footwear designer at H&M. “Our common goal of change fuelled us throughout the design process”.
The Good News x H&M unisex sneaker collection is available in H&M stores now. More information about the collaboration is available here.
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