Materials are the currency of a circular economy, but their value depends on the systems that recover, sort, and return them to productive use. The Footwear Collective brings together brands, suppliers, recyclers, innovators, and recovery partners to build the shared infrastructure, data, and collective action this requires — with its brand members setting the direction of the work. Lewis and Patrick will look at circularity in footwear through two lenses:

• Post-consumer — a California collection project is recovering footwear at the end of its wearable life. The open question is what quality of material that stream actually yields, and what can be built from it.
• Post-industrial — in Vietnam, the Collective is gathering the offcuts, trim, and scrap generated in footwear manufacturing, processing it now to determine what it can become and where it fits back into production.

Learn more about The Footwear Collective →

Lewis Campbell

Director of Data & Digital Transformation

Lewis’s work focuses on leveraging data and systems thinking to accelerate circularity across the footwear industry, helping organizations collect, interpret, and apply information to build more collaborative and effective circular solutions.

Patrick Choe

Pathway Manager & Advisor for Circular Materials

With more than 20 years in footwear product development and innovation, Pat has held leadership roles at HEYDUDE, Sperry, Wolverine Worldwide, and New Balance. He brings deep expertise in product creation, advanced materials, supply chain strategy, and manufacturing, helping bridge industry innovation with circular solutions.