SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is something we value at Sneaky Steve and we take pride in our supply chain, locally sourced production and short transports. It all stems from our production in Felgueiras, Portugal.
MADE IN PORTUGAL
The decision to craft our shoes in Portugal is not only an assurance of high quality but also one of the most important aspects in our quest for sustainability. The long storied history and rich tradition of shoemaking is nowadays coupled with modern factories with modern techniques that focus on sustainable production. This encompasses UV light-cleaning, in-factory recycling plants, minimizing of spills, reuse of as much materials as possible and the majority of our production is now solar powered through solar panels. This is a large part of the reason of why we’ve chosen Portugal as the site of our shoe production.
LOCAL SOURCING
Felgueiras is the town where all of our production is located. And we truly mean all of it! Everything that goes into our production is found within a 10 km radius. Leather, suede, soles, shoelaces, eyelets and even our shoeboxes are made right here. These unique opportunities gives us a local, sustainable production that ensures the smallest possible environmental impact.
OUR FACTORIES
We are proud of the factories that makes our shoes and we've been able to build close and long lasting relationships with them. The factories we work with are small scale and family owned and all the tanneries we work with are exclusively those that lives up to the demands of the REACH and The Leather Working Groups regulations.
PRODUCTION TO MARKET
Portugal-based production is also a fantastic way for us to make the path from production to market shorter and thus keeping down the environmental impact even more. Because of Portugals membership in the EU our shoes are transported with a freight company that complies with the EU:s guidelines for emissions and working conditions. The freight company we use is also a member of CSR West Sweden which stands for Corporate Social Responsibility and works for sustainable development, both environmental, social and economic.
WORKING CONDITIONS
Because of the relative closeness of having our production placed in Europe we are usually able to visit the factories 3-4 times every year. This gives us full insight into the process and the working conditions. Safety and comfortability for all of the employees is of the utmost importance for us and so we’ve put a lot of effort into finding factories which are run by people who share our values.
DURABILITY AND QUALITY
We love working with producers that feel as passionate about the craft as we do. The overall Sneaky Steve design aesthetic has a big focus on details and finish and making these shoes with the level of quality we strive for is not possible without a trained eye and a real sense of craftsmanship. There are a lot of steps that a machine simply can’t do well enough and therefore requires the talent of a skilled craftsman. That’s why Portugal suits us perfectly, their history of shoemaking and the pride they take in their work is really important for the end product.
When all is said and done, the end product is the result of all the hard work and it needs to stand the test of time. An important choice we all can make is to buy products with the intent of using them for a long time. Making shoes of a calibre that support that choice - That’s what quality means to us.
