Ivan Izquierdo, the new CEO of Tiresoul has been interviewed by the communication team to give an insider’s view of this new addition to RMD.
Q: What is Tiresoul’s goal as part of RMD?
A: ‘Tiresoul seeks to give a new purpose to NFU, thus contributing to reducing the environmental footprint and promoting sustainability within the footwear industry. It manages to introduce this waste into the fashion industry, giving an avant-garde touch to the design and with the backdrop of promoting sustainability in this sector’.
Q: What presence does Tiresoul have at national and international level?
A: ‘With Tiresoul we open horizons for sustainable footwear fashion design. The fact that we are the only European manufacturer of this product puts us in a privileged position for export. In March we attended the Milan Footwear Fair (MICAM) where we seek not only to expand our presence but also to spread the importance of sustainable practices in fashion. Promoting the visibility of our product and exploring new opportunities.
Q: How did this idea come about?
A: ‘The only precedent we found was during the post-war years, in the years of autarchy, the economic system based on subsistence and international isolation, when poverty and need sharpened ingenuity and tyre rubber was already being used to make shoe soles. Now, the motivation is different and has to do with the company’s firm commitment to innovation, contributing to the sustainability of a traditionally highly polluting sector’.
Q: What are the advantages of this material compared to others?
A: ‘Vulcanised rubber is rated to withstand 40,000km in cars weighing around two tonnes at speeds of up to 140 km/hour. If it can withstand that in a car, its use as a shoe sole can be virtually unlimited. The lifespan of a tyre on a vehicle is only the prologue of its history, because once it comes to an end, it is reborn with a new utility, in this case as a recycled rubber sole’.
Q: You told us that you are pioneers in this product at European level. What makes you so?
A: ‘Tiresoul has developed a unique technology to reuse tyres in a completely innovative way without resorting to chemical, thermal or shredding processes. This pioneering process focuses on extracting the tread from tyres to obtain strips of rubber, which are then supplied to the footwear industry. From each strip, 6 to 8 soles can be extracted, or in other words, 3 to 4 pairs of any type of footwear can be produced. This innovative approach offers a second life to the discarded tyres, while the footwear gets the outstanding qualities of this reused material: strong, durable and sustainable’.
Q: What happens to the leftover material?
A: ‘The material left over from the treads is returned to the industrial chain for recycling in a process that not only reduces the amount of waste that ends up in landfills, but also provides an opportunity for innovative and sustainable applications of recycled rubber’.
