“Vietnamese Tesla” of sneakers

Two Vietnamese start-ups introduce a fine recycled sneaker line, catching up with the new trend of sustainable development in fashion, one of the industries causing the most pollution and placing themselves in the Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.

Tran Bao Khanh (left) and Chu Hoang Son (right) wish to transform waste-based sustainable materials into exciting and innovative products, thus the Rens Shoes, which are made from coffee grounds and recycled plastic, was born. Photo: Dien dan Doanh nghiep

From the passion to sneakers...

Living in Helsinki (Finland), two sneakerheads Tran Bao Khanh (aka Jesse Tran) and Chu Hoang Son together pursue their sneaker dream after meeting each other in a coffee shop and agreed that there were so few options of sustainable sneakers that actually look good because sustainability equals sacrificing style and vice versa.

Realizing that about six million tons of coffee grounds are discarded worldwide every year, which has a significant impact on the environment like all organic waste disposed of in landfills, they chose them as their main material for making shoes which must not only be eco-friendly but also good looking. Rens Original was then set up in 2018 for this goal.

“Footwear made from ecological materials is not new. However, most of them are not eye-catching and therefore, do not sell well,” Khanh said.

“Rens Original in fashion is like Tesla in the world of electric cars. Rens aims to transform waste-based sustainable materials into exciting and innovative products and extend the life-cycle of these supposedly ‘trash’,” he added.

... to the first shoe brand born in a Crowdfunding platform

These waterproof shoes made from coffee grounds are light, convenient, and beautiful as well. Photo: Rens Original

After 18 months of working on the idea, their first pair of shoes was launched in 2019 on Kickstarter - the world’s largest crowdfunding website.

Using 300 grams of coffee grounds collected from convenience stores and cafes in Helsinki, “mixed” with 500 ml of recycled plastic, a pair of Rens shoes is ultra-lightweight with 460 grams, waterproof, foot deodorant, anti-slip and cool with nine different colors. Their model of factory-free, eco-friendly product development and online business attracted more than 5,000 subscribers.

The idea “caught the eye” of the General Manager of Unilever, was introduced to the United Nations and raised more than half a million dollars after 52 days of launch. Rens became the fastest fundraising start-up in Europe in 2019.

To date, Rens has sold 40,000 pairs of shoes worldwide, mainly through online sales, recycling more than 250,000 plastic bottles and more than 750,000 coffee cups of coffee grounds.

While the company is based in Finland, where coffee consumption per person is the second highest in the world (12 kg/year, according to the World Coffee Organization), its factory is located in Vietnam, the homeland of the two founders and also one of the world’s largest coffee exporting and shoe producing countries. It is also expected to partly solve the problem of environmental pollution that Vietnam is facing.

... and a world-leading sustainable brand dream

Rens Original's shoes line for women- the Red Hot Sneakers. Photo: Rens Original

 The road to success requires a lot of ambition and effort. In fact, Khanh, working for a Finnish e-commerce company and Son, an employee of famous fashion e-retailer Zalando, made a bold decision when they left their good job for their passion.

“Having a good job in an active environment with a decent salary could be a dream of a person living in a foreign country like me. But if I stayed, I would have lost a lot, especially the opportunity to create a product with my personal identity,” Son told The Hanoi Times.

“Starting a business, I can create my own stuff and be my own boss to have the freedom to be creative with the things I like,” he added.

Khanh and Son also admitted that it was not easy to start a business. They had to work from early morning to midnight every day at the beginning and their experiments failed many times. “Many people laughed at us when we said that we would open a sneaker startup because there are already so many famous shoe brands. However, it is important that you keep the faith,” Khanh said.

Having reputation and good sales online but Rens’ founders won’t stop there. They now target expanding the market. They are working with retailers in the UK and US to offer the products in their stores and online trade platforms. Moreover, they are also doing research to make use of more waste-based materials such as bamboo, pineapple skin, or other products in the future.

“We aim to upgrade our unique and proprietary sustainable manufacturing network and turn Rens into a world-leading sustainable brand. My wildest dream would be to see a day when the world runs out of trash because society and the fashion industry have both understood the concept of sustainability and recycling,” Khanh stated.