Germany: Forget clogs! 'Sustainable' WOODEN sneakers unveiled in Berlin

Sebastian Thies, founder of nat-2, displayed the company's newest creation - a "sustainable" and "vegan" sneaker made almost entirely out of wood - in Berlin on Friday.
Some 90 percent of the shoe's surface consists of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood, meaning the material's origin can be traced back to its source. The wooden components are vector-lasered and applied to organic cotton in order to soften the material and make it more flexible, while at the same the wood's natural structure is retained, Thies said. He added, "the feeling when you step inside the shoes is like regular, comfortable shoes but when you touch the surface, it's very smooth, very soft like a fine nappa leather. And you can feel and smell the wood."
The sneakers are made of ash, birch, maple, tulip tree, walnut, cherry, elm and beech depending on the model, and are manufactured in Italy under fair-trade conditions.
Commenting on the remaining 10 percent that is not made of wood, Thies explained "all the other parts of the shoes are sustainable and ecological. We have animal-free glue, which is not easy to achieve because synthetic glue is normally not as strong as normal glue; we have a real cork insole, it's anti-bacterial, we have a soft padding. It's really high-end."
At the time of writing, Thies was in Berlin to promote his shoes at Berlin Fashion Week.