Carbon Footprint of Shoes

This analysis provides insights into the carbon footprint of shoes across their full manufacturing lifecycle. Sustainability professionals can leverage these findings to identify emissions hotspots, benchmark performance, and guide lower-impact design and sourcing decisions.

27.17 kg CO2e The Carbon Footprint of Shoes Shoes Carbon Footprint
What's the Carbon Footprint of Shoes?

What's the Carbon Footprint of Shoes?

The average carbon footprint of a pair of shoes is 35.58 kg CO₂e, with emissions ranging from 5.82 to 84.06 kg CO₂e. This footprint accounts for emissions across multiple manufacturing stages for the 8,793 shoes analyzed. The average mass of a pair of shoes is 911.07 grams, consisting of 57 components on average.
  • Minimum footprint: 5.82 kg CO2e
  • Median footprint: 27.17 kg CO2e
  • Maximum footprint: 84.06 kg CO2e

Carbon Emissions by Process Step in Shoes Production

Each Shoes's footprint includes emissions from multiple manufacturing stages. The following process steps were identified as carbon hotspots for Shoes:
  • Assembly 0.38 kg CO₂e
  • Finishing 0.25 kg CO₂e
  • Coloration 0.20 kg CO₂e
Carbon Emissions by Process Step in Shoes Production

Key Insights from the Environmental Data on Shoes

Assembly Emissions Hotspot

The assembly process is a significant emissions hotspot, contributing 0.38 kg CO₂e per pair of shoes on average. Improving efficiency in this step could substantially reduce the overall footprint.

Finishing Emissions Impact

The finishing process is the second highest emissions source at 0.25 kg CO₂e per pair. Evaluating lower-impact finishing methods has the potential to decrease emissions.

Coloration Emissions Relationship with Mass

The coloration process emissions of 0.20 kg CO₂e per pair indicate a possible relationship between dye/pigment use and the 911.07 gram average mass of shoes.

Emissions Range Variability

The wide range of 5.82 to 84.06 kg CO₂e emissions across shoes suggests variability in materials, processes or product types that impact the overall footprint.

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"Shoes can consist of up to 1500 components. Before Carbonfact, we asked our developers to weigh every single piece but such a manual approach is not scalable. Carbonfact helped us  in deriving rules to overcome data gaps by creating accurate assumptions."

Philipp Engels
Product Sustainability Lead at On
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"With Carbonfact we can do full product LCAs on all of our products. Thanks to measuring things early on, we can simulate how a new product is going to have a different impact compared to the current version. For example, one of our new products is expected to decrease its footprint by a fourth just by designing it differently."

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Strategy & Sustainability at La Sportiva
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"We needed a solution that could handle the complexities of the apparel supply chain, provide year-to-date insights, and support with detailed scenario analyses for our supply chain. For us Carbonfact is not just a Carbon Management Software, but an extension of our sustainability team."

Florence Degoy Vacher
Secrétaire Générale at A.P.C.
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"What's really special about Carbonfact is the way that it can work alongside the VF brands to help identify where there are gaps in our product impact data. But also helping us bridge towards improving that data. So it's much more of a partner to solve the challenges we have."

Julian Lings
Senior Sustainability Manager, The Northface
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"The Explorer is, for sure, my favorite feature. I love the ability to look at the breakdown of the carbon footprint per product line, for processes or on a material basis. That's so dynamic that we're able to leverage it in different ways depending on the projects that we're working on or the teams that we're engaging with."

Emily Foster
Director of Planet & People Impact at Burton
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"Carbonfact's offerings, particularly its product-level focus for footwear and apparel, ensures we can both measure our carbon footprint and actively find ways to reduce it. Carbonfact has been instrumental in helping us model different scenarios and make informed decisions that align with our sustainability goals."

Aileen Lerch
Sustainability at Allbirds
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"We have moved from spend-based carbon accounting into Carbonfact to prioritize primary data and get more accurate calculations. The main reason for us to choose Carbonfact is that we now not only get our company's total carbon footprint but also break it down for each of our products."

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Global Sustainability Manager at Happy Socks
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References

Data sourced from Carbonfact’s proprietary database, powered by over 50 million LCAs run on textile, fashion, and footwear products. The methodology is aligned with the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and adapted for product category specificity.

Find more information about our LCA methodology here.
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