My jaw dropped when I first met Sebastian Thies, founder of innovative sneaker brand nat-2™. It happened back in January 2019 at the very-first NEONYT exhibition, while he was showing me his sneakers which were made out of recycled coffee grounds. It was only a matter of seconds till we started talking more, as I was completely fascinated by his work and innovative thinking. Sebastian is a 6th generation footwear professional since 1856, is the founder and designer of nat-2™. He is also a Creative Director at various other Projects and has worked with companies such as Sony, Ritter Sport, and more.
Sebastian has been a total inspiration to me for a long time (a fairy godfather of vegan material innovation or what?). He is one of the people that made me even more interested in investigating fashion and material innovation. Together we will share the story behind nat-2™, Sebastian’s awesome sneakers brand creating innovative sneakers from futuristic sustainable materials such as coffee, roses, moss, and even stones and meteors, most of which he developed himself or in collaboration with young designers and brands.
nat-2™: The Future of Footwear
When and why did you start nat-2™? What’s the meaning behind this name? I started nat-2™ back in 2007. The name nat-2™ is a fantasy name, but the letter “T” stands for my family name, Thies, and the number 2 stands for the “second thought” we always take in everything we do and create. The letter “A” is also the initials of my kids which in the future, will be the 7th generation in our company.
I remember you telling me you are coming from a family with a long heritage when it comes to footwear. Is that why you chose to focus on footwear? And has your family history helped you along the way?
Yes, Footwear has been natural for us as a family since 1856. My great grandfather, Ferdinand Fischer, started as a hatmaker, also selling felt to shoe manufacturers. He was very innovative and invented a patented a felt-press-machine. That was the reason the company succeed and became huge at that time, before 1900. Therefore, shoes were kind of a natural zone (for me, as my sister is a movie director).
My dad, Matthias, and my aunt, Rike, developed one of the first-ever 100% compostable, all-natural shoes in around 1993. The brand and project were named “Clear” and were even TÜV proved. Unfortunately, at that time, the demand for sustainable products was almost non-existent.
Sustainability and innovation are in the core ethos of your brand. What made you go in this direction and why?
As a family-owned business with tradition, we always had to act, plan, and work with a sustainable mindset, business-wise. Back in the days, the company became big with all-natural, sustainable shoes (felt slippers) and we always had a crush on high-quality natural products, so to go back and push in this direction after the age of mass-consumption was not only a question of passion for us but also a matter of common sense and a way to plan our survival in an ever-changing market. Besides that, I have been a sneaker fanatic since I was 9 years old 😉
nat-2™ + Vegan Innovation
nat-2™ is responsible for a long, impressive list of amazing vegan fashion innovations. Why is veganism in fashion important to you? And what is your view about the vegan fashion industry going forward?
For us, it is a matter of intelligence to create vegan, but at the same time sustainable products, whenever it makes sense. I wish there could be a world in the future where all products are vegan AND sustainable at the same time. In our opinion, the biggest problem with vegan products in the fashion accessory market is that they are simply not ecological. By knowing this and being a part of a quite unsustainable industry like fashion, which still is needed as people have to wear something, we thought it is on us to risk a lot and use all our knowledge and innovation to start creating vegan products that try to be as sustainable and green as possible.
One key here is to never be satisfied with what was achieved but to strive for more. For us, there are no boundaries, and by now we know that things we thought would be impossible 10 years ago are now the new normal. To be fair, I have to say, that from our point of view the current state of the art has to be a mix of vegan products and natural products, which can be made from industrial waste products, for example, and many of them, the way we make them, are most ecological.
On the other side, we would never use any nonvegan ingredients if there is a better choice. I will give you one example: we created the world’s first vegan sneaker made from real wood panels years ago and for us, it was a no-brainer to use all other parts of the shoe in a vegan way, as we created a material that is a possible alternative to such things as leather.
On the other hand, we had created a non-vegan shoe, that is a solution for the poured away milk from the dairy industry, which would otherwise go to waste, and combined it with wool to create the most advanced, long-lasting and beautiful felt product ever, so for the other materials of the shoe would have been un-ecological to use plastic, even though it is recycled. Therefore we made the shoe 100% biodegradable from veggie tanned leather. This is what we call “common sense design”. Use the best of what’s accessible in the best compound for the moment. But every solution and design is always a moment that can change as instantly as the world does right now.
You are currently one of the leading brands when it comes to sustainable fashion innovation. How do you keep evolving and constantly coming up with new ideas?
We are traveling around the world a lot and reading whatever we can. These two points are key. Knowledge is essential and all we do is based on the knowledge we have built up for decades.
What are the most important things for you as a brand? And what was the message you visualized for nat-2™ to carry and spread?
To stay true to ourselves and our style and follow nobody. If we are not ahead of time, we have missed our key Merritts. Our vision is to have a true impact on our industry and to prove that even as an old family business you can be more innovative than billion-dollar stock companies with all their human and virtual potential, they mostly don’t use it.
Unconventional Materials
You are making sneakers out of coffee grounds, roses, and even stones. What made you think about these things as potential materials in the first place?
Every material has a different story. We never sit around a table thinking about what we could do next. The story behind using coffee grounds started because we adore coffee in the office and read that it is used for gardening, cups, etc. The idea for using roses came because we just had roses, and we used stones because we met cool dudes from a brand called Roxxlyn Berlin after I found their stone material in a small store in HongKong, and by circumstance we met in Paris a while later, so we repurposed and developed their material for shoes.
Can you make sneakers out of anything? Or there are specific requirements/criteria/qualities that raw material has to have for it to be possible?
Anything! We fail about 50% of the time, not in making shoes, but in making wearable shoes. So some things are experimental, but hey, if you do not try, how can you know it does not work? 🙂 nat-2™ is not only a brand but also an art project. we are not striving for sales in every object we create. we take the freedom to experiment, do research, develop, and dream. simply out of passion and the need to open our minds and learn.
What was the hardest material to create so far? And what is the one material you are most proud of?
The hardest material to create and the one that took the most time to design was the “wood”, and the most challenging materials to work with were stone, concrete, and mokutan. The material we are most proud of nowadays is the Moss and Skeleton Leaves we use, as well as the Algae, which was made in collaboration with Daniel Elkayam.
Lead us through the process of creation, from taking the raw material and testing to the finished product.
It all starts with an idea and continues with material compound research, design draft, prototypes, testing, re-try if needed, another test and re-re-try, final test, and voila, we get the finished product or dumped project or simply a piece of art.
Your sneakers are ethically made in Italy. Why did you choose to produce them there?
I have a friend there, who is also working in the shoe industry and when we worked together for other (luxury) brands and projects. I got to know this area (Marche) better and loved this “birthplace” of true footwear culture. We do produce some things in Germany, and originally, we wanted to do everything here but had to find out and admit that most innovative things and parts that we use to create our shoes would have to be imported, so it makes no sense for us to manufacture these innovative products here right now. it is more sustainable to produce where your different “puzzle pieces” come from.
Collaborations
You are constantly collaborating with young, up-and-coming designers- is that something important to you? how do you find them? Did you visualize nat-2™ to become a little hub for innovation?
It is super important because without collaboration or the ability to make compromises in projects we would have been stuck. There is simply no one you can’t learn from.
Give us some hints on projects you are working on at the moment! And, what are your plans for the near future? Where do you see nat-2™ going in the next 5 years?
We are currently working on some new materials and concepts which are mostly vegan and bio-based. We also work on some accessories (we’ve always done some, once in a while), and besides that, we are trying to survive the current pandemic. I hope in 5 years will make the progress we are aiming for: the best high-end footwear brand available in the market.
Romance In a Pair of Shoes: nat-2™’s Flower Line
The Rose sneakers by nat-2™ are probably the most romantic pair of shoes out there. It is made with recycled real rose leaves, which cover up to 50% of the shoe’s surface, depending on each style. Rose petals are highly fragrant and colorful, and to make sneakers with them, they are applied to a natural eco-flax-layer and even got the natural rose scent. The texture and feel of the material one of a kind, as it allows you to smell and feel the roses, and no shoe is similar to the other, each of them is truly one of a kind.
Apart from roses, this pair of shoes features a number of great innovative materials, such as reflective glass upper, anti-bacterial cork insole, and special lining which is made from anti-bacterial, antiseptic, and breathable bio-ceramic. From my personal experience with this pair of shoes, which I own for nearly a year now, I can highly recommend them as they are extremely comfortable and super unique. I love the fact they reflect during night-time and always start good conversations. It is one of the most comfortable pairs of shoes I own, and the most unique one for sure.
If you are interested in learning more about nat-2™, you can visit their website, and to shop for their sneakers you can visit their online store. nat-2™ kindly provided me with a discount code to share with you!
use stylesmile10 for 10% off all your orders** (click here to shop).
You can find nat-2™ on Instagram, Facebook and the official Nat-2 Website.
Outfit Details:
My outfit details: Sneakers: nat-2™ Rose Sneakers * || Clothes: old
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Until next time,
Noa
*This post is not sponsored. nat-2™ kindly gifted their sneakers and I decided to feature them. Please note, items marked with (*) were kindly gifted to me. There is an affiliate code featured on this post, marked with (**). All the opinions shared are mine. To read about my work ethics, visit my ethics page.