After successful updates in collaboration with fashion’s favorite DJ, Honey Dijon, and Berlin-based fashion brand GmbH, orthopedic shoemaker Scholl is launching yet another partnership.
This week, Scholl Shoes and Dr. Scholl’s in the U.S. presented a limited-edition capsule collection the brand has put together with California-based denim brand Re/Done. The capsule, featuring a fresh take on the Pescura sandal, goes on sale from Tuesday online and in stores and will retail for a premium price, around $295. The ordinary Pescura usually sells for around $120.
Re/Done started off by upcycling classic Levi’s, taking apart vintage jeans and putting them back together again for resale and has since moved into making its own collections. It claims to have kept more than 158,000 pairs of Levi’s from being discarded. The company has also worked with T-shirt-maker Hanes to come up with a range of classic cotton tops and last year collaborated with automaker Ford on a special line.
“Collaborating with heritage brands to recreate the classics is at the core of what Re/Done does, so our partnership with Scholl felt like a no brainer,” the company’s chief executive officer Sean Barron said in a statement.
The Scholl collaboration is similarly sustainability-minded to other Re/Done projects. There are some design alterations, such as slightly higher heels, a different more vintage-inspired finish to the sandal’s buckle and squarer toe shapes, but perhaps most notably the wooden base of the classic sandal is now made out of beechwood certified by the Germany-based Forest Stewardship Council, an international body dedicated to sustainable forestry. And the leather on the Re/Done X Scholl shoes come from factories that have been audited by U.K.-based organization the Leather Working Group, which promotes responsibly sourced and more environmentally friendly leather. Straps on the denim variant of the sandal come from Re/Done’s own jeans recycling.
Scholl CEO Tobias Klaiber told WWD that the various collaborations were adding a lot of value to the brand. The same has happened for rival German sandal-maker Birkenstock. Turnover in Scholl’s premium sector has more than doubled recently, he added.
Each of the collaborators has added their unique take on the icon. Honey Dijon brought oversize detailing and higher heels to her Scholls and a second capsule will be released later this year. Meanwhile, in keeping with its aesthetic, GmbH brought a more techno flair to the sandals — featuring mesh uppers. The first of these were previewed on the runway during the brand’s spring 2023 presentation in Paris last October.