Shoe bags – Yes, you need one for your next trip

A good shoe bag is one of those things you probably don’t know you are missing, but once you have one, it’s hard to imagine being without.

When I was in university, I was working part time as a cabin crew, which is a job that involves shoe change several times a day. Many cabin crew have nicer shoes with high heels, which you wear at the airport and when greeting passengers on board. After departure, when the inflight meal service start, you change into more comfortable shoes.

The shoe bags that were provided by the airline were very basic, and did not have any other function, than to store the shoes. Though I have often thought that it would be easy to tweak the design of the traditional shoe bags and make them much more usable. A while ago, I therefore got in touch with Kanary and the women at CWSG in Cambodia with my shoe bag design. It resulted in Not Just A Shoe Bag, which as the name suggests, is much more than just a shoe bag.

The Not Just a Shoe Bag has a large, zipper pocket in front, that easily fits a pair of extra stockings or socks, as well as shoe polish, a cloth, and other things you need for your shoes.

When you arrive at your destination, you can use the shoe bag for your running shoes if you have to take a bus or metro to get to the running track or to the gym. You can also use the shoe bag as a backpack or as a gym sack for gym clothes and shoes.

The shoe bags are made from upcycled fabric, which is dead stock from the clothing factories in Cambodia. Kanary buys the fabric directly from the factories or from sellers at the textile markets in Phnom Penh. By using leftover fabric to make the shoe bags, we help reduce waste from the garment industry and thus contribute to a more sustainable production.