Zachary Berry is the 2024 winner of the Fashion Footwear Category.
Zachary is currently pursuing a dual master’s degree in Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. His passions lie in harnessing VR to promote environmental sustainability and innovating sustainable footwear design. He focuses on developing shoes that minimise manufacturing waste, employ biodegradable materials, and introduce new forms that blend aesthetics with eco-conscious.
Zak’s project, This Side Up, offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to current disposable footwear available on the market. Usually found in hotels, airports, hospitals and even spray-tanning booths, disposable footwear is usually made from non-renewable materials such as EVA and polypropylene. Instead, Zak’s shoes are constructed utilising waste cardboard found on his commutes to and from university. The shoes can be flat-packed, making them easy to transport and store in bulk while also tackling the overlooked issue of cardboard pollution which is a significant source of methane emissions in landfills.
Click here to find out more about Zak’s winning design.
