What is fashion without the earth?

As a giant panda living in the wild, what do you see and hear in a day? On October 27, World Giant Panda Day, many people experienced a day in the life of a giant panda at Taiyang Taikoo Li Square in Chengdu.

This is an exhibition called "Giant Panda Journey", which uses paper-mâché and immersive projections to create a virtual giant panda habitat. While living in the wild may seem poetic, there is less and less room for freedom, and human deforestation and irresponsible destruction are threatening the pandas' homes.

Unlike other giant panda-themed events, Chengdu has made habitat the focus of attention this time. The campaign is a joint initiative of WWF and its global partner, the Italian shoe brand GEOX.

The WWF logo is a simplified giant panda motif, and the festival focuses on the entire wildlife community, of which pandas are just one character.

Seemingly to catch a glimpse of education for children, young actress Lin Yun and swimmer Ning Zetao, dressed in black and white giant panda-themed colors, plunged into this realistic wilderness habitat.

WWF and GEOX jointly launched a variety of interactions and activities, including specially designed wildlife-themed children's shoes with adorable designs of pandas and gorillas painted on the side of the shoes.

GEOX started with children's shoes in its early years, and the theme of this campaign is "Taking a step for nature together". Following the Taikoo Ri Giant Panda Day event, GEOX joined forces with WWF and OPF, a global nature foundation, to release a charity bracelet made of eco-friendly cotton thread.

GEOX founder Mario Moretti Polegato was present at the event, and both he and his band are younger than one might expect. He loved talking about technology, Italian fashion, and "sustainability" as a constant theme.

"Sustainability" is the hottest topic in the international fashion world today, and it faces the most demanding public scrutiny. Today, any major company with a long-term perspective and a focus on brand value and image considers sustainability to be one of the most important issues.

Industry leaders are the most active, developing technologies and tools and organizing alliances to try to turn this into an industry-wide initiative.

In 2017, Gucci announced that it would stop using fur, and parent company Kering Group has been particularly vocal in the area of sustainability. Its Parisienne and Bottega Veneta all have environmentally friendly leather treatment technologies.

In 2018, Chanel joined the fur-free world and also proposed that it would abandon crocodiles, lizards and snake skins, etc. Burberry, Ralph Lauren, and many other brands have taken a stand in these years.

The earliest brand to take action in the field of sustainability was probably Stella McCartney, where the designer used 100% recycled materials exclusively to design luxurious evening dresses to show the world that sustainability and fashion are not contradictory.

With Stella McCartney ending its joint venture with Kering and then accepting investment from LVMH, the industry seems to symbolize that the two luxury conglomerates are left behind on the sustainability issue, and both want to do more and better.

Kering has developed a software called "My Environmental Profit and Loss", which can be used by anyone to check the value of the environmental impact of their activities, and the results are measured in monetary terms.

And this year, LVMH issued its Charter for the Sourcing of Animal Raw Materials, which addresses issues such as the traceability of raw materials, the natural environment, and species diversity.

The frontiers of sustainability may be beyond the imagination of the general public, as leading practices in the fashion industry are no longer limited to donations, with fashion brands flexing their expertise. So, why are they so keen?

For starters, the fashion industry has a huge impact on the environment. Take a common leather handbag, for example, the leather treatment process will produce a lot of sewage, while the metal parts of the handbag including copper, gold, and other materials may become heavy metal pollution. Cashmere is a valuable raw material, but overgrazing will cause desertification of grasslands, leading to dust storms.

The fashion industry is so large that it causes carbon emissions, water pollution, and a host of other hazards so alarming that some even compare it to the petrochemical industry.

The American writer Rachel Carson published the book Silent Spring in 1962, which focused on the hazards of pesticides and fertilizers and also gave a shock to the fashion industry, which is considered to be a symbol of the start of the sustainable concept in the fashion industry.

It is the responsibility of fashion brands to focus on sustainability issues, and the cost that brands pay for sustainable approaches today often results in positive feedback.

McKinsey has specifically surveyed millennials and found that a large percentage of them are willing to accept higher retail prices for products that come with a sustainable approach, and if a brand takes sustainability seriously, there will be a significant increase in favorable perceptions of them among young people.

GEOX founder Polegato believes that a focus on sustainability will lead brands to step up their R&D and find better ways to do things.

Some fur companies have pointed out that the environmental harm caused by producing alternatives to leather through petroleum processing cannot be underestimated. But this does not mean that the issue of sustainability can be regressed, in the exploration of new methods, many new technologies and ideas are surprising.

GEOX's history of growth has always been about people - finding ways to make the human body more comfortable. To do this, researchers not only had to study the science of materials but also used various principles of aerodynamics to design the air circulation inside shoes and clothing in an ideal way.

And all of this comes from Polegato's own experience.

Born in Italy in 1952, Polegato was originally meant to inherit his family's winemaking business, but a trip to Nevada in the United States changed his life.

When the local heat became unbearable for his feet, Polegato took a Swiss Army knife and made a slit in the sole of his shoe. It was at this moment that inspiration struck, and upon returning to Italy, he developed a new type of rubber sole, which was quickly patented, and the "breathing shoe" was born.

He chose the Greek word GEO, which means "earth", plus a letter X with technology and a sense of the future, and created the GEOX brand.

Breathing GEOX is both breathable and waterproof, which sounds incredible. Imagine familiar leather, porous structure that allows the feet to breathe, but easily absorb water and moisture.

How to balance the breathable and moisture resistant, GEOX on the sole of the article, the use of rubber or other synthetic materials, the sole left many small holes, while covering a special film made of the microporous material.

This magical microporous size is smaller than water droplets, but larger than water vapor molecules, so that water can be prevented from entering the sole, but the sweat inside the shoe can escape. The feet can completely breathe and breathe, but also always stay dry.

In December 2004, GEOX was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.

Polegato tells us that GEOX, as an Italian brand, maintains the natural Italian sensitivity to design and fashion, "the result of a perfect combination of contemporary design and ultimate technology." Both classic styles of footwear are available while capturing today's fashion trends with ever-changing designs.

At the same time, GEOX is extremely obsessed with technology. From the day it was born, it has been constantly updated and iterated, and it is constantly tested in a variety of extreme weather conditions, including race tracks and ski slopes.

In 2018, GEOX formed a strategic alliance with the U.S. Dragons electric Formula E racing team, naming the team GEOX DRAGON and beginning a three-year partnership.

The race takes place on tracks across five continents, which means that drivers will experience a variety of different climates and unexpected conditions, with extreme and harsh weather occurring from time to time.

This is exactly why GEOX is interested in the sport and sees it as an ideal opportunity to test it. By providing riders with footwear and apparel that are used in a variety of environments, GEOX's products offer excellent breathability and temperature regulation for freedom and comfort in training and racing.

Leading technology and performance comes from research and development, and GEOX's R&D center is located near Venice, Italy. There, a team of experts studies air circulation, pressure, temperature, and various other issues. Every year the company invests 2% of its turnover in R&D, with the ultimate goal of using technology to improve people's quality of life.

Polegato says: "Combining R&D technology with the latest fashion trends is one of the great talents of the Italians." GEOX runs an innovation-driven business. And when it comes to researching sustainability issues, technology becomes part of GEOX's magic.

Innovative technology not only helps products have superior performance but also reduces the negative impact on the environment. Today GEOX has signed agreements with suppliers to choose recyclable raw materials.

After establishing a partnership with WWF, GEOX has blended the qualities of both parties to design a very thoughtful solution.

WWF, the largest independent environmental NGO, has been working to protect giant pandas and their habitats in China since 1980 and has expanded its work to include oceans, forests, climate change, and many other areas.

For this Chengdu Giant Panda Day, one of the goals is to get children involved in environmental protection, and GEOX has designed a capsule collection of six baby shoes and six children's shoes.

The soles are both thick and thin, all with a patented capsule, especially paired with Velcro and decorated with natural tones, sketches, and animal prints, with images including four rare animals: panda, tiger, polar bear, and gorilla.

All shoes in this collection are made of recycled cotton fiber or leather, and the soles are made of 20% recycled rubber. Sustainability even covers the packaging of the collection, with boxes and hang tags made of pure plant fiber and filled with 100% recycled paper.

For every pair of shoes sold, GEOX will donate 2 euros to WWF and guarantee a total annual donation of at least 200,000 euros for the protection of endangered animals.

As a highly global company, GEOX is making a valuable impact on sustainability issues; GEOX is today present in more than 110 countries, with more than 10,000 brand collections and 1,015 boutiques, and sales of €827 million in 2018.

With "70% of annual revenue coming from outside Italy" you can see the global reach of GEOX, whose technology and leading-edge ideas on sustainability issues influence suppliers, partners, and customers worldwide.

In 2005, GEOX established the Ethics and Sustainability Committee, inviting the esteemed chairman, Nobel Laureate, and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Polegato told us that today, GEOX is constantly optimizing its entire marketing strategy, with a current focus on investing more in design and offering more choices for women users. For years, the "breathing shoe" has been known worldwide for its comfort, and GEOX wants to make women feel that GEOX is also a trendsetter in the market.

GEOX will invest more in design, marketing, and advertising, but will never neglect to invest in research and development and sustainability, which is the cornerstone of the group's philosophy.