About

Join maker/designer Tracey Neuls for a celebration of DOT, her innovative new sugarcane-derived sneaker. Tracey will be on hand to discuss her craft and how she fuses creativity with key innovations in sustainability. During Tuesday’s breakfast event Tracey will be sculpting a new last to demonstrate the early stages of the new design.

Tracey Neuls has been called the Eileen Gray of footwear design. Her designs are timeless, never pandering to trends and always original. Quietly amassing 25 years of expertise in footwear, from the making process to the materials used, her designs are investments, worn for the life of the footwear, dictating style itself.

When launching her label in 1999, Tracey won the New Generation Award and has been garlanded with several other awards since. The Design Museum honoured her contribution to design for her minimalist, all-reflective bike ‘Geek’ shoe. First creating the heart-formed, split toe shape, the draped one-piece leather heel and the circle arch form, she approaches footwear design as sculpture. Every new shape is sculpted first from plasticine — evoking a childlike creativity, unhindered by outside influence.

Welcome DOT, a trainer which is the result of fusing creativity with the latest innovation in sustainability, featuring Tracey’s signature craftsmanship and her unique brand DNA. Two years in the making, DOT was all about finding a zero-compromise, earth-friendly design solution. Join for a week-long celebration of DOT with Tracey in-store.

The highly distinctive sneakers are made in Portugal largely from bio-based materials. The 70% sugarcane-derived EVA sole is not only made from renewable resources but it’s also incredibly lightweight, highly flexible and more durable than the conventional petroleum-based EVA (abrasion test results have shown a 50% improvement). The natural and bio-based footbed is made from the fibrous Sisal plant which is traditionally used for rope and twine.

The upper is made from locally sourced chrome-free and vegetable tanned leather, which has a much lower environmental impact compared with the standard chromium tanning. Removable insoles mean the trainers can be refreshed from season to season. It has the comfort that is expected from a trainer with equal measures of style and originality.

Tracey comments: ‘I’ve been wanting to create a modern, super lightweight and comfortable trainer without compromising on sustainability and durability for a long time, but I wasn’t keen on using the usual toxic (petroleum-based) sneaker soles that are widespread in the market. This launch is partly thanks to being able to utilise the latest sustainable innovation and I’m delighted with the result.’