La Manufacture 49 - Eram

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Company presentation

La Manufacture 49 (MFC), located in Maine-et-Loire (49), France, is the industrial unit of the Eram Group, which owns nine brands (Gémo, Bocage, Eram, Mellow Yellow, TBS, Dresco, Parade, Montlimart, Sessile). It specializes in footwear manufacturing.

La Manufacture 49 designs and produces over 400,000 pairs of bonded and injection-moulded shoes per year in France. Led with the Sessile and TBS brands, this project is an opportunity to develop a traceable, standardised sole compound (formulation) referenced with European suppliers, with the aim of progressively rolling it out across all Eram Group brands.

Several partners are involved in the project:

  1. The 8 Impact: a key player in sorting for recycling, material separation, and material regeneration for inputs used in rubber and EVA sole manufacturing. The 8 Impact supports industrial players in using post-consumer recycled materials derived from end-of-life shoes.
  2. Various sole manufacturers in Portugal

Project objectives

The ReRub project led by La Manufacture 49, in collaboration with The 8 Impact, aims to assess the industrial-scale feasibility of incorporating post-consumer recycled rubber into the soles of future TBS and Sessile products.

  •  Refashion funding : 37 034€
  • Project duration: 12 months

💡 Key project informations

  • Type of CHF covered : Post-consumer shoes with rubber soles
  • Recycling stage : Recycling and incorporation of recycled content
  • Recycling process : Grinding and micronisation
  • Applications : : Footwear (closed loop)
  • Output product : TBS and Sessile shoe soles

🔄Project steps

1. Feasibility study

for processing three post-consumer footwear waste streams.

2. Grinding, separation and characterisation

of the 3 streams by The 8 Impact.

3. Masterbatch production

following micronisation of the three streams and reincorporation of recycled rubber micronisate into a virgin matrix

4. Rubber sole formulation

by suppliers using the provided masterbatches

5. Project wrap-up, sole qualification and industrialisation

Words of Innovation manager

“This project lays the industrial foundation we need to bring footwear into the real world of recycling—and unlock a new era of truly circular”

Gauthier Bedek - Innovation manager at Eram

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