Nature and feet go together like peanut butter and jam. They belong together. They just do.
And, as it turns out, nature has helped define and shape what we’ve been putting on our feet since well, since us humans have started covering them up in the first place.
We’ve teamed up with children’s book author Malcolm the Weaver whose books aim to educate and motivate children from an early age to appreciate the art and science of colour and nature and to treasure the beauty of life.
Malcolm’s children books aim to educate and motivate children from an early age to appreciate the art and science of colour and nature and to treasure the beauty of life. A textile designer by trade, Malcolm has spent over fifty years in the premium cloth-making industry. Inspired by his children’s questions about what he did every day at work, Malcolm became “Malcolm the Weaver” and created a series of books for kids explaining colour and textiles in a way that highlights the importance of nature and our environment.
Now he travels around the U.K. talking to schoolkids about the materials, colours and textures nature provides, as well as appearing on TV and now, working with us at VivoKids to help spread some barefoot nature-loving love!
In our Vivobarefoot & Malcolm the Weaver story, he says: “Ancient footwear was made from natural things such as woven straw and reeds, hemp, wool, cork and wild leather. Footwear can also be coloured by the earth, in harmony with nature; brown and tan from mud and clay, green from purple heather, reds from berries and magenta from yellow dandelions. Different plants have different colours hidden inside them.”
“Can you imagine these wonderful messy shades on a pair of your shoes?” asked Malcolm the Weaver.
We can. And we hope you will join us!
To celebrate this special collaboration, we launched our Nature Inspired Competition for kids to design their very own Nature-Inspired colour-scheme for a pair of VivoKids – and the winning design will go into production for our SS23 collection!
Kids can use pencils, mud, vegetables, flowers and leaves… however they want to create their colour-scheme, let their creativity run wild!
The winner will also receive x4 pairs of Vivobarefoots for their whole family, and four runners-up will also win a pair of VivoKids as well as Malcolm the Weaver’s Trilogy of children’s books (we’ll send 10 more of his books to a few more of our favourite entries too!).
At VivoKids, we want to use this competition to help kids – and their grown-ups! – learn about the awesome natural materials we have in the world around us. Done carefully, natural materials break down easier, causing less harm to the planet – and they use fewer harmful chemical processes to make. You can read more about the natural materials we use at Vivobarefoot here.
As Malcolm the Weaver says, “I´ve taken schoolkids on nature rambles to collect everything they need to make and dye a little piece of cloth from scraps of wool off fences and berries to make coloured dyes. When you show a kid how this is possible, it sows the seeds for them to realise it’s not all about just clicking a button and getting stuff. We learn to appreciate what nature provides and, like this, to look after it better.”
All entries have been closed and the winner has been anounced. Write to us at kids@vivobarefoot.com if you would want us to continue creating these fun dynamics.
Find out more about Malcolm the Weaver at malcolmtheweaver.com or watch his BBC Scotland programme here: 'Malcolm the weaver'.
T&C’s apply.
Winners were announced on the 20th of March 2022.
