Our shoes are garbage and we're proud of it.

We are making the ugly beautiful again by turning waste materials into premium footwear. As well as helping the environment, we are providing job opportunities to those who have had a bad start in life and are marginalised from society. We collaborate with inmates from the San Felipe prison in Mendoza to assemble our sneakers, using old tyres and textile waste rescued from landfill.

When rubber tyres are disposed of, they release toxic pollutants into the atmosphere and the surrounding environment. We created Xinca in Argentina to tackle this problem and turn a negative into a positive by making an eco shoe range from the waste. Not only are we utilizing dangerous waste but, in doing so, we are bypassing the need to use precious natural resources to produce our footwear. We are also helping those who are increasingly neglected in our society, namely ex-offenders, by providing them with an opportunity to learn new skills and get back into the marketplace.

To take Xinca to the next level we need...

Funding. We create products that generate real benefits for both society and the environment and our company represents a space where excluded individuals can be given a second chance in life. We have already recycled 20,000kg of tyre waste. But, in order to take on a new level of production and replicate our business model in other countries, we need your support.

I was inspired to become a social entrepreneur by...

Abel Albino, an Argentine pediatrician who dedicated his entire life to fighting child malnutrition in South America. Inspired by his altruism we wanted to create a brand that offers not simply premium footwear but a world of ideas, meanings and values.