Maximum comfort, minimal footprint cork insoles. Join us as we revolutionize footwear, one step at a time.
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Planet’s First Circular Shoe Insoles: the lightest step you’ll ever take!
We are proud to present: PRIMAL Clouds® ☁️ Our lightest and squishiest insoles ever for maximum comfort with every step.
Thank you for your support.
As you consider to join us – be it through a product pledge, a donation or a like on social media – know that we are grateful for your action and thrilled for your attention. We have listened to each person’s feedback from last year’s campaign and incorporated it into this year’s magnificent product. We will continue to create what you – our customers – demand. This is how we can keep offering a product that is good for you, and better for our Planet.
Thank you,
Your PRIMAL Team
P.S. Just like last year, be sure to watch the Behind the Scenes at the bottom of the campaign!
PRIMAL Soles are our Planet’s first circular shoe insoles. Sourced, handcrafted and recycled in Portugal for maximum comfort, minimal footprint.
We started designing the PRIMAL Slippers after a member from our Advisory Board came up with the idea to replace single-use hotel slippers with European-made top quality, natural and recyclable cork slippers. Made from the same top quality materials as PRIMAL Soles, these indoor slippers are soft as a cloud, lightweight and corky squishy.
“Life is short – the fruit of this life is a good character and acts for the common good … Get busy with life’s purpose, get active in your own rescue, and do it while you can.” Marcus Aurelius
We use cork as the main raw material for our insoles. Cork is a regenerative and endlessly recyclable raw material and offers the perfect natural benefits for insoles.
A regenerative process
Cork is a naturally renewable raw material. The cork oak tree is the only tree which can regenerate after each harvest of bark.
Storehouse of CO2 emissions
Harvesting supports the tree’s regenerative ability as well as the quantity of CO2 it can absorb. Harvested cork trees absorb 3-5 times as much CO2 as unharvested trees! It is estimated that cork forests retain about 14.4 million tons of atmospheric CO2 each year. That means that for every ton of cork produced, the cork oak tree sequesters 73 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Supporting biodiversity and cultural heritage
Cork oak forests are one of the most important ecosystems in the world for preserving biodiversity. Home to many endangered species that would not survive outside of these unique ecosystems, harvesting cork ensures that these forests are well taken care of.
It is estimated by the WWF that cork-related businesses indirectly account for about 100.000 people’s way of making a living. Considering the geographical reality of this labor, southern Europe and northern Africa, the cork oak forest has become a serious economic and societal source of income.
De-risking 1.000 hectares of endangered cork oak forest in Portugal
rePLANET Wildlife concentrates on projects that are aimed primarily at biodiversity uplift (agricultural uplift, habitat restoration) or avoided loss (high value wildlife sites under serious threat). Most of the projects are therefore a mix of biodiversity and carbon credits.
Most of the world’s cork grows on the southern plains of Portugal. We plan to avoid any potential loss and to restore its habitat by planting new cork oak trees with the help of rePLANET and the issuance of credits to the local population.
We will target endangered habitats, wasteland and (animal) farmlands to amplify our impact. Farmers that will grow cork will earn identical incomes versus any other yield of land through the sale of carbon and biodiversity credits. Besides local impact, we will shoot a world-class documentary on the importance of the cork oak forest ecosystem for our Planet – and share it with the whole Planet.
Funds needed to start this project: €250K
Cork Forest Ecosystem
The cork oak forests, Montado in Portuguese, are living ambassadors of sustainability and a driving force of sustainable development. They play a crucial role in the world’s ecological balance, fighting climate change and desertification, and sustaining biodiversity.
Over 200 animal species and 135 plant species, some of them endangered, find their preferred habitat in the cork oak forest. Because it’s biologically rich and varied, but also extremely vulnerable, the cork oak forest is one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, on a par with Amazonia and the African Savanna.
In the Mediterranean basin, cork oak forests occupy an area of over 2,2 million hectares. In more than one way, they are the lung of the region. Because they are crucial to maintain a fragile ecological balance, but also because they play a decisive role in shaping a unique social, economic and cultural landscapes.
One year and one Kickstarter later, over 1.000 non-recyclable shoe insoles spared from landfill waste, more than 200 product reviews, and 1 new product: PRIMAL Clouds® ☁️
2023 has been quite the year as we won the Financial Times & Intent for Change Responsible Business Education Awards, got invited to talk about PRIMAL Soles on the stage of the World Economic Forum and subsequently raised an investment from the InTent Education Program & Hoffmann Family Foundation.
Watch PRIMAL Soles’ Founder, David Even, at the panel of the SDG Tent at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 16th, 2023. He shares the vision of PRIMAL as he receives the Responsible Business Education Awards from Financial Times and Intent for top student-led project with an impact on society and the environment (starts at 07:24).
One of the most primal activities we do is walk. On average, we spend about 8 hours a day on our feet, taking between 5.000 to 10.000 steps. As insoles naturally wear out after 1M steps, they should be replaced every 3 to 6 months.
But here is the kicker: rather than tossing them into the trash, like any other sole, PRIMAL Soles can be sent back to us, to be grounded up and turned into the bottom part of a new sole.
