Our natural leather house shoes, crawling shoes and barefoot shoes are Made in Germany, and we are very proud of that. Several seamstresses sew many, many children’s house shoes here in our factory in Wilhelmsdorf/Franconia in loving handwork every day. But handwork is only one of several aspects on the journey to ecological and sustainable leather house shoes for children. The leather used also plays a very important role here.
Background story
Our managing director and shoe designer Verena Carney has been working with leather from IVN-certified tanneries for more than 20 years. Incidentally, she was also one of the first producers to use this leather. During her desperate search for sustainable children’s shoes and the decision to design her own, she came across the ecologically tanned leather from Ecopell and decided on it after a long search. She developed her shoes primarily for her two sons and, of course, wanted to find only the best and most ecological leather for them.
Properties of our leather
To this day, we use our natural leather with full conviction, because: Natural leather is IVN certified – all hides are vegetable-tanned, chrome-free and are regularly and strictly tested for harmful substances by an independent institute. The long-standing cooperation with our suppliers and the well-founded trust are also unbeatable criteria when choosing leather for our Orangenkinder® house shoes.
Origin of the leather
The raw cattle hides come predominantly from southern Germany and are also tanned here under socially fair conditions and ecological requirements in a German tannery. This ensures that the tanning process takes place under strict environmental conditions and, for example, the resulting waste water is disposed of responsibly.
Processing and naturalness
Our natural leathers are not coated and are natural. This means that natural features such as insect bites, scars, etc. are not hidden under a thin layer of plastic, as is often the case in industrial leather processing, for example. This makes our leather very soft and breathable and also acquires the typical patina after a certain period of wear. The patina is a layer on the leather that forms individually with your wearing experience and gives each pair of shoes its own history and character.
You can see and, above all, feel this on your own Orangenkinder® shoes. Take a look!
What are natural features?
At Orangenkinder®, we make sure that these natural features do not impair the look of your shoes – each of your pairs is individually punched and carefully checked. This means that the leather shoes match and harmonize as a pair without these features impairing the overall appearance. Skin areas with natural features are, for example, more likely to be used for parts where they are inconspicuous or covered, such as for soles, as envelopes in the back or under appliqués.
We could of course also sort out leather areas with natural features and only use flawless leather for our shoes. But that is not our aim, because it would not be sustainable and far too expensive. Every piece of raw leather is processed as much as possible in production, which is particularly important to us. Throwing away leather is out of the question for us!
We process everything that we cannot use for house shoes or crawling shoes into other products, such as doll shoes or key rings and much more.
Especially in today’s world, we as producers and suppliers want to concentrate on manufacturing sustainably, protecting our environment and treating the raw materials we have with respect.
This has been and is a very special concern and philosophy of our company.
All this for you, the environment and future generations.