Shoe is made with yarn derived from castor oil

Tiziano Guardini, a designer who has made sustainability the distinctive feature of his original creations, has added a bio-based shoe to his new sustainable collection. Made by Santoni, producer of seamless machines, the shoe displays futuristic lines and a seamless upper made entirely of bio-based Evo^® yarn by Fulgar, an Italian manufacturer. The yarn’s biomass source is the castor bean; the monomers used in the polymerization are partially or completely sourced from castor oil.

The company says the yarn is suitable for all textile applications, particularly sportswear. The yarn is light, very stretchy, breathable, quick drying, and offers natural thermal and bacteriostatic properties.

This particular shoe is produced on the X Machine technology developed by Santoni, enabling the production of a one-piece upper with no seams using a no-waste technology. “It allows the possibility of having distinct mapped areas according to the type of yarns and to the various structure combinations, to produce a final product that is ready for the application of the sole only, to complete the manufacture of the shoe,” says Patrick Silva, Santoni marketing manager.

According to Silva, the circular sock machine offers a 100 percent sustainability process with fast production times—from 5 to 7 minutes per piece.  The X Machine technology was launched recently in Milan, Italy.