Timberland's Earthkeepers 2.0 Make Conventional Boots Cower In Eco-Shame

I'm not much of a fashion maven, but I really appreciate that more conventional manufacturers are rethinking how they can create more sustainable products.

I was always taught that you should buy things that are well constructed so that they last a long time, and while those words made sense, I was broke for most of my young adult life so those pearls of wisdom just went in one ear and out the other.

One thing I always did pine away for was a pair of genuine Doc Martens, but again, I couldn't even rub two nickels together...so what did I do?

I bought a pair of cheap @$$ knockoffs which ended up falling apart in one year.  I sure wish I had listened to my mother.

Well, look at these puppies...they certainly have a Doc-esque feel to them, don't they? Made by Timberland, they aren't just well constructed, they're also incredibly green.

Dubbed "Earthkeepers 2.0,"  80% of these boots can be recycled -- in fact, once you've beaten them up into oblivion, you can just return them to the manufacturer and they will reuse the materials in the following ways:

• Their Dominican Republic factory will refurbish the leather.
• The green rubber soles -- made with tire waste -- will be returned to their Georgia rubber recycling facility, where they will be melted down and remolded into new Timberland outsoles.
• Any metal hardware on the shoes will be reused or recycled.
• The polyester lining will be recycled into new polyester products.

Craftsmanship like this, along with the sustainable edge, does come at a price -- in this case $160 -- but Doc Martens are hovering over the $100 mark as are so many other conventionally made boots, so it seems like a reasonable investment not just in style but in sound business practices.