Basura and Yerba Madre create shoes "literally made out of dirt"
Yerba Madre is a yerba mate company that, in the face of a giant rebrand, decided they needed to make a statement. This statement took the form of a pair of shoes that are, quite literally, made out of dirt.
The Dirt Shoes project is part of an effort to "pique people's interest" in the yerba mate company since it recently rebranded from Guayaki and to serve as a "statement of regeneration, circularity, and commitment to give more back to the planet than we take", according to Yerba Madre.
The first part of this statement has been incredibly successful. The idea of a pair of shoes that are made of dirt will successfully capture attention because of this idea of absurdity. Most people want a clean shoe, one that is made to last, has an aesthetic that they like, etc. When you juxtapose that anticipation of consumers with something like “dirt”, seen as dirty, less than appealing, and as we learn in the article, not exactly having much structural integrity, the concept becomes something that people derive humor from. In that way, they have successfully garnered attention.
In regards to the second statement, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, their statement specifically stated that they wished to make a statement about “their commitment to give back to the earth more than they take.” I think it’s difficult to say whether this commitment still holds true to this day from simply this article, but considering the attention this campaign has gathered, and the obvious themes of sustainability, they have successfully, at the very least, made a public statement about their valuing of sustainable practices that they will be held to by those that have seen this campaign.
Their message about sustainability lives in the transformative nature of the shoes. As previously mentioned, the shoes are not actually that structurally stable, and even during the photoshoot, easily crumbled. The way the shoes were designed in their limited run, was that as you walked, they would spread seeds that would then be reclaimed by the Earth, and that was the mechanism in which to deliver this sustainability statement.
Review
In thinking on this project, I have my doubts, similar to other pieces I’ve reviewed in this Arts section. Their primary goals of undergoing these campaigns were to garner attention for their brand and to make a statement about their commitment to sustainable practices. While I can’t say that any of these goals were not met, I have to think more about the overall message of the piece.
I think in general sustainability practices, it is much easier to say that they are going to be sustainable, than it is to actually implement these sustainable practices. It is unclear from this campaign alone how sustainable their practices truly are. However, what I can conclude from this campaign alone, is this feeling that sustainability is being used as a marketing tactic. In their statement about the campaign, they tried to present these two ideas as being separate, but when the campaign deliverable is one individual item, it becomes impossible to separate them.
This idea of sustainability is being used as a marketing tactic, and when this “sustainability” in practice, is not coincidentally available to view, and cannot be verified, it weakens the credibility of the brand. This effect is known as “greenwashing” where businesses attempt to make themselves look more sustainable, in hopes to virtue signal to specific groups that their brand is more sustainable. This actually takes away from real sustainable efforts, in that when individuals think they are participating in sustainability when interacting with a company that is only saying they're sustainable, this takes away effort and money from places that are verifiably conducting sustainability practices.
Reference
Dezeen. (2025, June 24). Basura and Yerba Madre create shoes literally made out of dirt. https://www.dezeen.com/2025/06/24/basura-and-yerba-madre-create-shoes-literally-made-out-of-dirt/
