FoamLife Hanging Shoes 2024 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Hanging Shoes 2024 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: FoamLife
Interviewee: Karl Read – Co Founder / Creative Director

How was 2023 for the hanging shoes market?
2023 for FoamLife has experienced growth, both in terms of sales performance and market expansion. Our sustainability practices, proven core best sellers & new designs resonated well with our target consumer, leading to strong sell-through in existing and new territories. The strategic expansion into new countries has opened up exciting avenues for brand visibility and customer engagement, further bolstering our global footprint and setting a solid foundation for continued growth into the coming years.

What are the current trends in hanging shoes?
It’s about offering a range with versatility, reflecting the consumers increasing demand for a collection that caters to a broad range of occasions and styles. In both Men’s & Women’s ranges we have styles that seamlessly transition from casual beachwear, to more urban or even formal environments, like our new Men’s style “Sharrp” & “Sharrp Slide”.

PAMPA-ARTIST-SERIES

What new styles and shapes are you offering in 2024?
For 2024, our collection builds on the foundation of our proven flip flop and slider silhouettes, infusing them with fresh energy by updating the colour palette and the use of premium sustainable materials. In the Men’s collection our new style “Traad” has a raised, repeat logo footbed that comes in two colourways. This style taps into the resurgence of 80’ & 90’s fashion trends, offering a nostalgic, yet fresh look. The new “Fresco” style is the perfect fusion of a tennis sneaker and beach style. Crafted from a brushed sugarcane EVA and featuring a natural rubber outsole with a recycled rubber fleck, RPET toe-post and faux suede padded upper strap. This style captures the stylish blend of sporty sophistication and laid-back beach vibes. The Pampa – is the first of our Artist Series, a printed camo hemp canvas strap and translucent rubber outsole with a camo pattern. The camo design used on this style is based on an image that was created by FoamLife Co-Founder Karl Read. It was originally painted in 2018 at Upfest (Europe’s largest urban paint festival) in Bristol, UK and later released as a Limited Edition signed & numbered screen print. The inspiration behind this image came from when President Trump decided to legalise the importation of ivory into the United States. Titled “Hidden Treasure” the image depicts an African tribesman trying to camouflage the elephant to protect it from poachers. Each camouflage shape is the map/silhouette of Africa. Due to the success of the bio leather “Earth Series” in the Women’s collection last year, we’ve introduced the “Seales Earth” into the Men’s line-up. It features a brushed sugarcane EVA foam, a vegan bio-leather upper strap and a natural gum rubber outsole with a fleck made from grain husk. Our new Men’s styles “Sharrp” & “Sharrp Slide” are made from a brushed sugarcane EVA foam and a textured, poly fabric upper strap made from RPET, derived from post-consumer plastic bottles. This clean & unique aesthetic is just as much at home at the office as they are at the beach. For Women’s, our new style “Yogi” features a sugarcane EVA, yoga mat memory foam and a monochrome woven upper strap. With the success of “Sully” in the Men’s collection, we have introduced a “Sully” to the Women’s collection too. This is available in two colourways, Sand & White. It features a brushed sugarcane EVA footbed, RPET toe-post & an upper strap made from hemp canvas. “Harts” in Latte Brown is our new sugarcane EVA style with a lasered, palm print pattern on the footbed, an RPET toe-post and a contrast neon orange woven upper strap. This style comes with a free ankle bracelet attached to every pair.

What materials and construction techniques are you using in your 2024 collection?
Comfort remains a priority with all styles in the range featuring our “soft to step” EVA foams and raised arch support. Our 2024 collection utilizes a range of sustainable materials, including sugarcane & recycled EVA, a textured poly RPET fabric made from post-consumer plastic bottles, hemp canvas, plant-based bio leather, natural gum rubber, cork and jacquard / woven padded upper straps.

TRAAD

What colours and prints are you offering in 2024?
Our core styles like “Tarlan”, “Traa” & “Traa-SC” in the Men’s collection continue to feature our best-selling colours like Black, Navy, Tan, Olive, Stone Grey and Slate Grey. We’ve introduced a touch of earthiness with colours, “Putty” & “Earth Brown” in styles “Sully” & “Seales Earth”. Clay Red is a new colour that is colour blocked with black to inject some “easy to wear” colour into the range. For those seeking a more vibrant burst of colour, our 80’s-themed Men’s style “Traad” is offered in two colourways, Black & Slate Grey, that is paired with Neon Pink, Green & Blue highlights. The key print for this season is the custom camo design on style “Pampa – Artist Series” In the Women’s collection, Black, and neutral colours such as Sand & Latte Brown continue to be used across the range. Pastel colours Sage Green, Powder Blue, Dusty Pink & newly introduced Lilac for 2024 offer a beach chic, sophisticated look. Neon Orange is used as a base colour in recycled EVA style “Lixi” and as a vibrant accent throughout the rest of the collection. Our best-selling animal prints are carried over this year in both flip flop and slider styles “Zikat -SC”, “Selene” & “Selene Slide”. Additionally, our traditional palm print gets a modern update in “Zikat-SC”.

Anything new in terms of sustainability?
From FoamLife’s inception it has been committed to being as sustainable as possible. We are plastic free in our packaging from the factory all the way to the end consumer. All of the materials we use are Vegan and PVC free. Over 70% of the range now uses a sugarcane EVA foam with the remaining using a recycled EVA foam. We’ve further increased the number of styles that now use an RPET thread, lining & webbing toe-posts, made from post-consumer plastic bottles. We have introduced our plant-based bio leather into the Men’s collection due to the success of the bio leather used in the Women’s “Earth Series” last year, as well as gum rubber outsoles with recycled rubber fleck and a fleck made from the husk of grain.

How are you helping retailers sell this category?
We provide retailers with a freestanding unit for displaying FoamLife products, complete with clear branding and key product & sustainability icons to enhance sell-through. The stands have been designed so that two standard stands can be joined together with a wider branded header. This not only provides flexibility when the retailer wants to increase their assortment of FoamLife products, it also maintains a cohesive and recognizable display for customers. We also provide in-store POS and seasonal lifestyle & product imagery for both in-store and online use.

YOGI