Sustainability / Local Production / Uniqueness
KAVE Ideology
Our world is filled with products we don’t need, yet we keep producing them. This creates problems for both society and nature. Most of the products we consume are made in Asian countries and then shipped to Europe. These unnecessary transports of raw materials and products heavily pollute our environment.
Starting new production requires a lot of energy, shoe lasts, cutting tools, and the development of new materials. There are many fully equipped factories around the world with extensive archives of shoe lasts, cutting tools, and materials that allow us to produce sneakers with minimal environmental impact. So why keep making new equipment? Let’s use what we already have.
KAVE Story
KAVE sneakers are made from recycled materials in an eco-friendly way. These include rubber offcuts, worn-out soles, coffee grounds, and wine corks from our Czech winemakers.
EVERY SHOE IS UNIQUE
- Thanks to a special manufacturing technique, every KAVE shoe is a complete original.
- Every pair has its unique serial number.
- Every shoe has its unique color combination.
- Unique pieces are created in limited collections with minimal ecological footprint.
“WITHOUT MORAL HANGOVER”
What does this mean? You know where your sneakers were made, from what materials, and by whom. You’re sure you’re buying a local product that didn’t travel from the other side of the world and didn’t spend months on a cargo ship.
The people who work on these sneakers are masters of their craft, putting their great expertise and love for the craft into each pair.
The brand was founded in 2015, and we produced our sneakers in Zlín. Since 2023, we have been stitching and molding them in Slovakia, just a stone’s throw from the Czech border. However, we still process the sole materials near Zlín in Otrokovice.
The Founder
The brand was founded in 2015 by designer Eva Klabalová. She studied shoe design in the Czech Republic and footwear innovation in the Netherlands. She then worked as a designer and technologist for global brands in the footwear industry. With her experience, she understands the gap between nonsensical global movements of goods and forgotten local production opportunities—and she decided to change that.
She wanted to do everything differently, meaningfully, sustainably, and with respect for our environment. She returned to the Czech Republic, to Zlín, where she was born. She returned to the factory where she worked as a student intern. This time not as a worker, but as the creative director of the KAVE brand.
Today, Eva combines design and technology to create sustainable, quality footwear, globally changing the perspective on its production. Despite numerous global successes, she hasn’t forgotten her native Czech Republic. Through her talent and enthusiasm, she shows large and small companies, factories, and corporations that shoemaking can be done differently—better, more consciously, with maximum sustainability and respect for the planet. Eva also teaches at Tomas Bata University, where she completed her doctoral studies.
