Behind the craft
Making shoes is a passion and a craft that runs deep in our veins, from our beginnings in the King Country in 1948 through to now. However, as our business has evolved over the years, so have our responsibilities to this planet in our manufacturing endeavours.
How we make our product, from the components we use to the factories we engage with, all must pass through the lens of sustainability and transparency in order to meet our "Sole Responsibility" expectations and responsibilities.
Currently, approximately 80% of our women’s range is designed in-house by our NZ-based design team. Our collections are designed with longevity in mind and quality is one of our core pillars. We hope to inspire our customers to make buying decisions with versatility, longevity, and timelessness in mind.
We embrace a medley of carry-over pieces and new styles which means our collections are as trans-seasonal and timeless as possible. This allows our customers to invest and wear our styles for longer.
Every design cycle starts with a robust process refined over our 30 years in retail. We review what styles sold, what feedback we have received, and what trends our customers are hoping to see from us in the next season. We refer to this as the melding of “Art and Science”, where hard data meets research and design intuition, to create collections that inspire our customers.
We are shifting our model to be more demand-led and data-informed, as the starting point of our collections. Our process ensures we are able to plan our range and ensure we are not over-developing and making more products than we need. See our Responsible Buying Policy here.
We have developed a Strategy for Responsible production forecasting which outlines our strategy to plan, design and manufacture to clearly predicted demand, in order to reduce the amount of product we make, and what we need to mark down at the end of a season. This also limits what we ship or Air Freight to meet our sales budgets. See our Strategy for Responsible production forecasting here.
This coupled with freight and container optimizations has reduced our carbon footprint significantly. Any surplus stock is reduced in sale, moved to our outlets, or donated, none is destroyed or burned. Model and marketing pairs are either sold in our outlet stores, donated, or sold to our Support Office team.
Repair & Recycle.
We are proud to offer a repair service in our Newmarket workshop, with our talented cobbler able to extend the life of shoes and repair wear and tear issues to a high level.
Our designs are classic and considered, designed with longevity and versatility in mind. Craft and quality are at the forefront of our process, backed by close to 80 years of history and experience in footwear manufacturing.
We understand a customer invests in our styling and plans to maximise the use of their shoes for multiple occasions.
We provide information on the best care for your shoes both in-store and online, as leather is a natural product that responds well to some TLC on a regular basis.
We are working to extend the scope of our recycling in-store, with a recycling bin in our Newmarket store, accepting wearable footwear for donations to a variety of Charities.
The quality level and brand equity of our shoes also means a customer is able to buy and on-sell styles, to increase the circularity of a product.
In addition, we donate styles that may have aesthetic manufacturing faults which are deemed unsuitable for full-price retail, but still very wearable.
Our Suppliers.
We choose our suppliers carefully and work with a number of European factories along with our own Manufacturing resources in China.
Many of the European factories we work with are long-standing partners. We visit many of the factories annually and have mutually beneficial relationships where we are able to have more input into design and specifications, and in turn, we are able to work collaboratively with suppliers who may hit a roadblock or delay due to component availability, or freight, etc. This mutually respectful supplier relationship is at the core of our business and has been developed and nurtured over the past 30-plus years.
These relationships are the results of many years of investing in and working with other artisans around the world who are equally passionate about footwear.
Each factory we work with is required to sign our supplier code of conduct to ensure they adhere to internationally recognized standards for both employee well-being and environmental requirements.
Please see our list of suppliers and addresses with applicable accreditations here.
Our suppliers are also obligated to read our "Modern Slavery Statement" and ackowledge their intent to work on continuous improvement in the spirit of the statement.
Diversity of Fit.
In recent years we have turned our focus to creating more styles in a wider fit, to better reflect the diversity in our population. We have introduced several wide fitting lasts (a last is a mold that the foot area of a shoe is built around) and will continue to offer diversity in all our categories, to create a more diverse fitting capsule edit of our range.
Knee-high boots is an area that requires a more specific technical focus to achieve diversity of fit. We are working on a multi-fit programme that aims to have an offer for multiple customer dimensions including narrower and wider fits. Our aim is to offer a more inclusive range of styles, that more closely reflects our customer diversity.
Responsible Materials.
The majority of our product is leather and we are proud of the quality and longevity this natural material provides. We use exclusively leather which is a by-product of the meat industry, and are increasingly buying from tanneries that belong to the LWG (Leather Working Group).
The LWG certifies Tanneries offers four auditing standards, largely focusing on the environmental performance of leather manufacturers.
This provides assurance for us in the following areas:
1. Third-party assessment of the leather supply chain.
2. World Renown certification for sustainable materials.
3. Helping improve the environmental impact of leather
4. LWG standards ensure best environmental practice is adhered to.
In addition, we have produced a small collection of Vegan sneakers sourcing vegan leather from Italy. This material uses a high percentage of Bio Vege (Bio Polyols with elements derived from plants) and we continue to experiment in this area.
The majority of our canvas sneakers use 65% recycled canvas and our shoelaces are also recycled cotton.
Deuce Sustainability.
Our Deuce Sneaker range is designed in New Zealand and made in our factory in China. We have worked to evolve the collection to become more sustainable as we trial new materials and packaging.
- Algae Bloom x Deuce footbed: In 2020 we introduced our latest innovation, the new Bloom x Deuce footbed, which uses Algae Bloom, derived from algae that would otherwise clog waterways, to make a form of sustainable foam used in the footbed. The Bloom footbed is made from algae biomass, a sustainable, plant-based material, helping to clean polluted water. Every pair of Deuce x Bloom footbeds returns 18 litres of clean water to the habitat and cleans 11 M3 of air. These footbeds still feature superior cushioning and shock absorption, as well as antimicrobial GREENCHEM technology to combat odour and reduce moisture to provide freshness.
- Sustainable canvas: Where possible our canvas styles use a recycled canvas, using 65% recycled cotton and recycled cotton laces.
- Vegan collection: We have a small exclusive collection of Vegan sneakers made from Bio Polyols.
- New recyclable & carry-friendly shoe box: In SS20 our new carry-friendly Deuce box came into circulation. This box has been designed with a handle, to carry straight from the store, to reduce the use of carry bags as part of our Sustainability program. The box is also made of recycled cardboard, and we have eliminated the PP Non-woven travel bag in an effort to reduce packaging.
Introducing: Our new and improved Dual Core footbed
From March 2024 we will be re-introducing our first footbed that the Deuce brand was launched with, the Dual Core footbed!
Our journey to better underfoot comfort has brought us full circle... with improvements. These improvements are:
- Dual density cushioning for stability, arch support and shock absorption.
- Heel cupping for all day comfort.
- Anatomical design.
- Moisture wicking sock, which uses 70% recycled fabric.
- Machine washable.
- Upgraded foam made of 25% plant based (castor oil) materials.
- Contains activated carbon to help neutralize odour (the small black specs on the underneath are the activated carbon).
- This footbed can be swapped out for customers orthotics.
The footbed has dual density (hence Dual Core) cushioning for stability, arch support and shock absorption. The 2 densities of foam used are in separate colours to show the areas under the foot they support. The one in the heel is slightly softer for heel cushioning and all-day wear. The grey layer is a little firmer to provide stability.
