It takes about 22 gallons of oil to make a truck tire. Worldwide, one billion car tires are discarded every year (though about three-quarters are recycled these days). It was a trash pile of old tires that inspired the founders of U Roads to incorporate them into their shoes.

“Fifteen years ago we got this idea driving by a mountain of rubbish of tires”, explains U Roads managing director Fabrizio Spreafico, “so we take used tires from trucks to be used to be used as the outsoles of our shoes”.

Back in 1994 at the Rio conference, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognized U Roads as representing “a meaningful “step” to make use of what we already have, by crafting soles and trimmings from used rubber tires, and from using leather-tanning methods, recycled papers and other materials that reduce reduce environmental degradation”.

In this video, U Roads founder Spreafico shows us how they mix environmental consciousness and Italian design to create classic shoes.