Over three hundred million shoes are sold every year in the UK and that was back in 2003. The amount of shoes sold each year is doubling every 20 years, according to EU statistics; a large majority of those shoes sold are women’s shoes and a large proportion of women’s shoes contain cork.

Over 40 thousand tones of cork are imported into the EU for the sole purpose of making soles and heels for shoes and the vast majority being women’s shoes.

The reason why cork is such a good product for the manufacture of heels and soles in women’s shoes is simple; It’s cheap, light, comes from a sustainable renewable source, is water resistant, rot resistant, cushioning and very importantly looks good.

The cork in women’s shoes comes from the bark of trees, in the main the Cork Oak tree. You may be surprised to learn that nearly all trees have an outer layer of cork but the Cork Oak is far thicker. The majority of cork imported for the manufacture of women’s shoes comes from Vietnam.

As women’s shoes are market leaders in the sale of shoes and a vast amount of women are conscious of the environment, they are more than pleased to know that they are buying shoes that are made from a renewable source.

Before the manufacturers can harvest the cork to make women’s shoes they have to wait till the tree is 25 years old but after that they can harvest the cork every 8 to fourteen years for as long as the tree is alive.

Before the cork can be used in making heels and soles for women’s shoes the slabs of cork bark has to be boiled and the rough outer layer stripped away. The reason why women’s shoes that are made from cork are soft, smooth and supple is because of this boiling.

Women’s shoes made from cork have an added advantage in that cork has a waxy substance called suberin that makes the cork stain resistance and impermeable to liquids, it also prevents the cork from rotting. That’s the reason why women’s shoes made from cork last so long.

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