In the spring of 2025, the creative agency Basura asked The Factory NYC to make sneakers out of dirt. The shoes were for Yerba Madre, the yerba mate tea brand, and they had a job to do: be worn on camera, survive a trip to an influencer's door, and then fall apart. We developed the material, sculpted the shoe, built the molds, and cast 18 boxed pairs in about eight weeks.
About the project
Dirt Shoes were a launch stunt for Yerba Madre. The brief described them as a high-fashion sneaker made entirely of soil, meant to show the brand's connection to Mother Earth and its commitment to regeneration. The pairs were split between a studio photo and film shoot, influencer unboxings, and a few backups planned for sale, with proceeds going to yerba mate producer communities.
The rules were strict. Every shoe had to be made 100% from dirt, soil, clay, soil-derived materials, organic fibres or mycelium, with no synthetic dyes, adhesives or chemicals. Part of the soil had to come from farms using regenerative practices, and the soles were to carry wildflower seeds so the shoes could break back down into the ground. Basura also wanted it to read as a real product. The brief put it plainly: the shoe should feel like “something a hypebeast would like,” not satire or parody, and it should never end up looking like a pair of pottery shoes.
A sneaker that works like a clog
Dirt can't flex, so the shoe had to look like a sneaker and behave like a clog. We started from clog-style test casts, then moved to a sculpted master shoe with a panelled upper and the chunky, multi-tiered sole Basura asked for. The sole design and the 2D upper panels were reviewed and approved with the client before we committed to molds.
Sizing took some planning. Our early test shoes shrank by about one and a half to two shoe sizes as they dried. To make up for it, the master forms were built over a base two sizes larger than the target, then padded out with sculpted epoxy clay and the upper panels. The finished shoes come in two universal sizes, built to fit roughly a men's 8 and a men's 11.
Each shoe is cast in a three-part silicone blanket mold held in a three-part mother mold. The Yerba Madre logo and the sole texture were 3D printed, cast in silicone, and set into the molds, so every pair comes out with the branding pressed into the dirt.
The recipe
The final mix came out of rounds of glue and casting tests. Everything in it is something you could put in a garden:
- Soil: organic potting soil, peat moss soil, backfill soil from a local landscaping company, and sphagnum moss, which also lines the bottom of the mold to give the surface its texture
- Binders: rice starch, potato starch and gum arabic powder
- Strength: chopped dried corn silk, plus natural jute burlap reinforcing the sole and toe box
- Keeping it fresh: lemon juice, salt, tea tree oil, cinnamon and vinegar as natural anti-fungals
- Wildflower seeds, and a thin coat of melted beeswax inside the shoe, rubbed with dirt so it still reads as soil
Basura's art direction pushed the shoes away from looking machined. The jute is torn into irregular "rip" shapes and hidden from every exterior surface, and the dirt flocking is applied in patches rather than evenly, so each pair looks like it was pulled out of the ground.
Testing, and failing on purpose
Before production, we agreed on a test plan with Basura: how much damage a shoe takes going on, how many steps a wearer can take, whether it stays intact in its box for two to three days or on display, whether it can be worn more than once for a shoot, and whether it survives transport. That last one meant packing a test pair and biking it around two blocks. The plan called for results to be shared with Basura weekly as photos and video.
The shoes are supposed to break. The client wanted the failure points to look natural, and the one we could reliably build in was at the toe crease. Perforating that area lets the shoe bend and crack where a foot needs it to, while the jute underneath holds the broken pieces together. The final walk test took place in our shop on April 16, 2025.
Packaging
The brief asked for a premium unboxing that was also fully sustainable. Each pair ships in a two-part matte yellow box with a spot-gloss logo on the lid and the Dirt Shoes story printed on the inside. Inside, the shoes and a packet of Yerba Madre tea sit in starch foam cavities, cut slightly undersized so the friction holds each shoe in place. We cut the foam with a wet knife and dusted the edges with potato starch for a clean finish. A seed paper tray with a finger pull sits on top and holds a pair of socks and a note. Box cavities were sized around real cast shoes, not the molds, to account for shrinkage.
The finished pairs left the shop boxed and ready for the shoot and the influencer drop. Most of the work on this job was testing, until the material held together long enough to be worn and then came apart the way the client wanted.
