FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Footwear Brand Unveils Vegan-Leather City Sneaker Engineered for Urban Commuters
Plant-based upper, recycled sole and AI-mapped cushioning target 9-to-5 riders who log an average 3.2 km on foot each workday.
Portland, Ore. – November 21, 2025
Portland-based startup ShiftStep Footwear today launched the “MetroVegan RS,” a city-specific sneaker built with certified vegan leather, sugar-cane midsoles and a recycled-rubber outsole designed to withstand 10,000 heel strikes on concrete. The release lands as global demand for vegan footwear is accelerating—Future Market Insights projects the category will expand at a 7.98 % compound annual rate through 2035, pushing market value past USD 40 billion .
“Commuters told us they want a shoe that looks board-room ready at 8 a.m. and still feels comfortable after the 6 p.m. grocery run,” said ShiftStep CEO Maya Delgado. “By combining plant-based materials with impact-mapping data, we cut weight 18 % versus comparable leather styles while raising abrasion resistance 22 %.”
The MetroVegan RS upper is stitched from Mirum, a plastic-free leather alternative created by Natural Fiber Welding that uses natural rubber, plant oils and rice-hull waste. According to a 2025 life-cycle analysis published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mirum production generates 48 % fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than chrome-tanned bovine leather .
ShiftStep’s in-house ReRoute midsole, molded from 70 % sugar-cane EVA, returns 65 % of stride energy—an attribute validated by a third-party test at Heeluxe Biomechanics Lab in California. The outsole incorporates 30 % post-consumer rubber sourced from Oregon’s statewide tire-recycling stream, diverting an estimated 0.8 kg of landfill waste per pair.
“We engineered the tread pattern using heat-map data from 1,200 Portland bike-commute routes,” explained lead designer Arjun Patel. “Hexagonal lugs under the metatarsals give grip on wet MAX platforms, while a beveled heel smooths pedal contact for cyclists.”
The vegan commuter segment is no longer niche: a July 2025 survey by data firm CivicScience found that 34 % of U.S. adults aged 25-44 have purchased animal-free shoes in the past 12 months, up from 19 % in 2022. Price sensitivity remains a hurdle—78 % of shoppers abandoned footwear purchases last quarter after tariff-driven hikes—but ShiftStep priced the MetroVegan RS at USD 135, matching the average cost of imported leather sneakers once duty surcharges are applied .
ShiftStep will sell the MetroVegan RS exclusively online beginning 25 November, with regional pop-up fitting stations scheduled for Seattle, San Francisco and Denver transit hubs in December. Every pair ships in a recycled-paper mailer printed with algae-based ink; customers can return worn-out pairs to be ground into playground turf through the company’s CloseTheLoop take-back scheme.
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Sarha Al-Mansoori
Director of Corporate Communications
G42
Email: media@g42.ai
Phone: +971 2555 0100
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