The Microgreen Shoe is a prototype designed by New York-based material designer Stella Harry Lee. Through a re-evaluation of everyday textiles, Lee created a sneaker which grows organic produce through bacterial-grown synthetic materials. With daily exposure to the elements, plants such as micro-greens and radishes can be grown on the shoe’s crocheted upper.

While fashion brands are focusing on becoming more sustainable, this project shines a spotlight on fashion’s prevalent waste problem. The Microgreen shoe challenges a brand’s continued relationships with wasteful supply chains, and choosing profitability over restorative and regenerative change. Lee poses a hypothetical situation of a world with governments closing down factories due to global warming. In this dystopian future, we will be left alone to survive without factories making products for us, and products like The Microgreen Shoe will thrive.