Fabulous Sustainable MAKU Slippers

MAKU was established by a small team of like-minded people who love working with natural materials and believe in ‘making use, not waste’. MAKU combines these two passions – everything they create is designed to make use of pre-consumer discards.

The starting point was the realisation that – much like the textile sector – the international leather industry also creates a great deal of waste. Knowing nothing about the retail, leather, fashion or footwear sectors the team jumped right in – and thry’ve been enjoying the learning curve ever since!

MAKU launched online in February 2021 with just four slipper batches. Made from beautiful offcuts and seconds sourced from Turkey’s huge leather production sector, these were an immediate success.

Thousands of slippers later, and their passion for what they do is only matched by the interest and enthusiasm their wonderful customers provide. This is what drives the team to be ever more innovative in their use of ‘waste’.

The range of slipper models has quickly grown, and they now offer hats, gloves, gilets and a whole host of other accessories, plus soft furnishings too. All these ranges give purpose to beautiful leather and sheepskin that mass production so readily discards. No two rugs are identical. Our slipper models are only produced in limited editions, with the amount of leather or sheepskin they are able to source in a particular finish determining each batch size.

MAKU’s mission is to make useful, beautiful things from leather industry discards.

Their sheepskin slippers, hats, rugs and more are handmade using offcuts, seconds and deadstock. Their mantra is 'make use, not waste' and we try to apply this to everything we do – from production and packaging to our work environments.

MAKU aims to

1  make use of what leather industry mass production discards
2  make use of our own production offcuts
3  use what we find, as we find it – wherever possible,
    nothing is further dyed or treated  
4  sustain and/or revive traditional methods of processing and making
5  encourage others to create less waste through small,
    positive behaviour changes

We value design
Through their simple, efficient product designs they hope to encourage their customers to 'waste less' generally. Many of their products offer an opportunity for specific 'small actions' that help initiate a greater societal shift to sustainability. 

"At MAKU we aim to give overlooked natural materials new purpose, creating beautiful products for you to use and enjoy."