Israeli designer Shahar Livne has designed a pair of sneakers with alternative leather inserts made from the wasted fat, bones and blood of animals.
The Blood Sneakers were designed as part of Livne's Meat Factory project. It sees her run a series of material experiments to turn fat and bones taken from waste streams of slaughterhouses in the Netherlands into a sustainable material.
Inspired by the "nose to tail" attitude of using the entire animal, Livne also used discarded blood as an ink-like colourant and plasticiser for the deep-red material.
The sneakers have an insert made from a leather alternative
While the ingredients and their amounts are under wraps, the designer uses the waste products to form a substance that can then be moulded or 3D-printed into a leather-like material, or extruded into yarn. The Design Academy Eindhoven graduate hopes her project will spark conversations around the lack of knowledge consumers have about where the food on their plate comes from.
"The Meat Factory project investigates the dissonance people have with the food on their plates and the living animal, and the psychological dissonance between raw materials and processed materials," the designer explained.
"It explores the emotional connection with nature that has changed since food and materials became industrialised, and consumers have been alienated from the source, content and use of animal-based materials," she added.
The designer uses blood as an ...