Vivobarefoot teams up with Oxygen Project to raise awareness of algae blooms

Minimalist footwear company, Vivobarefoot is partnering with the Oxygen Project to raise awareness of farming and industry’s impact on the algae blooms that are “choking the planets waterways”.

The two organisations are calling for an end to the destructive agricultural and industrial practices that are severely damaging the world’s waterways, as they state there is “mounting evidence that harmful algae blooms are becoming more frequent and damaging as a result of human activity”.

As well as the compound effect of a warming planet, other contributors to the issue include the flooding of the environment via fertilisers, pesticides and other toxic chemicals, including human waste, into waterways. The effects of algae blooms are now impacting some of our planet’s most beautiful and ecologically important bodies of water from National Parks across North America, to England’s Lake District, Lake Chad in Africa, and even the earth’s oldest and deepest, Russia’s Lake Baikal.

These harmful algae blooms decimate aquatic life, pollute freshwater supplies and restrict oxygen from the water.

The footwear brand has joined forces with the Oxygen Project to lobby UNESCO to launch a global education programme, as well as calling upon governments to end destructive agricultural and industrial practices.

Vivobarefoot co-founder Asher Clark, said in a statement: “We are all about making footwear ‘not shoes’ that enables people to reconnect into the natural world is at the heart of what we do. We are proud to be partnering with Oxygen to launch this initiative alongside the world’s first amphibious footwear made from Algae bloom foam.

“We hope this will inspire people and industry at large to live barefoot and invest in a regenerative future of regenerative materials solutions that protect our planet and the world’s waterways.”

Alongside its call to action, Vivobarefoot has released the Ultra Bloom, the first footwear to be made using Algae bloom foam in 2017. The process takes harmful algae blooms out of waterways, reversing the effects of water pollution. Each pair of Ultra Bloom designs can return 57 gallons of clean water to habitat, reducing 40 balloons worth of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, explains the footwear company.

The Ultra Bloom for toddler, kids, junior and adults has been designed in a special edition colour to mark the project and is available on Vivobarefoot’s website.