How to read a shoe label: what footwear materials actually tell you
Read by partA shoe label looks nothing like a clothing tag. There are no fibre percentages, just a row of little pictograms. That is by design, set by an EU directive, and once you can read it you know what touches your foot, what faces the ground, and what to watch for. Here is the plain-language guide.
Shoes are labelled by part, not by percentage
Garment labels list fibre content as percentages because a shirt is essentially one material. A shoe is an assembly of very different parts, so it is labelled differently. Under EU Directive 94/11/EC, footwear carries a pictogram for each of three components, the upper, the lining and insock, and the outer sole, and each pictogram pairs with one of four material symbols. There is no percentage breakdown, and none is required. So when a shoe says nothing about fibre content, the label is not incomplete, it is following a different standard.
The four material symbols
Each part is matched to one of four standard symbols: leather (a stretched hide shape), coated leather (the same shape with a sheen, leather with a surface finish over 0.15 mm thick), textile (a woven cross-hatch, any natural or synthetic fabric), and other (a diamond, used for rubber, PU, EVA and most synthetics). The rule is that a symbol is shown only if that material makes up at least 80 percent of the part. If no single material reaches 80 percent, the two main ones are shown.
The lining is the part that touches you
For comfort and skin, the lining and insock pictogram matters most, because it is the only layer in constant contact with your foot. A leather lining breathes and manages sweat better than a synthetic one; a textile lining is common and usually fine. If your skin reacts to a shoe, the lining is almost always where the contact happens, not the upper.
The chrome-VI concern in leather
Most leather is chrome-tanned, and under heat, light and age the chromium III used in tanning can oxidise into chromium VI (hexavalent chromium), a recognised skin sensitiser. The EU caps chromium VI in skin-contact leather at 3 mg/kg under REACH Annex XVII Entry 47, tested by EN ISO 17075. Independent testing of children's school shoes has found leather linings above that limit, at 4.5 and 5.0 mg/kg. If your skin reacts to leather footwear, this is frequently why, and vegetable-tanned or declared chrome-free leather avoids the pathway entirely.
The outer sole, and why it scores low for the planet
The outsole is almost always rubber, PU or EVA, all petroleum-based. They are durable and do their job well, but a shoe is a bonded assembly of leather, foam, textile and rubber that cannot be separated for recycling, which is why even a good shoe scores low on recyclability. That is an honest trade-off, not a flaw in the shoe.
Make the pair last, the single biggest lever
Because shoes are so hard to recycle, the highest-impact thing you can do is keep a pair in service longer. Condition leather to stop it cracking, good leather lasts decades. Resole quality shoes rather than replacing them, which extends life far more than buying new. ClothTrace reads the pictograms on a shoe, tells you what each part is in plain language, flags a chrome-VI concern on a leather lining, and grades the pair on breathability and longevity rather than a fibre percentage it could never have.
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Frequently asked
Why do shoes not list fibre percentages like clothes?
Because a shoe is an assembly of different parts, not one material. EU Directive 94/11/EC labels footwear by component, a pictogram for the upper, lining and outsole, each matched to a material symbol, with no percentage required.
What do the symbols on a shoe label mean?
Each part of the shoe gets one of four material symbols: leather, coated leather, textile, or other (rubber, PU, EVA and most synthetics). A symbol is shown when that material is at least 80 percent of the part.
Is the chromium in leather shoes dangerous?
Most leather is chrome-tanned, and traces of chromium VI can form and act as a skin sensitiser. The EU caps it at 3 mg/kg in skin-contact leather, though testing has found school shoes above that. Vegetable-tanned or chrome-free leather avoids it.
What is the most sustainable thing to do with shoes?
Keep them in service longer. Shoes are bonded assemblies that are very hard to recycle, so conditioning leather and resoling quality pairs extends their life far more than buying new.
- Sources
- EU Directive 94/11/EC on the labelling of materials used in footwear.
- EU REACH Annex XVII Entry 47, chromium VI in leather; EN ISO 17075 test method.
- Consumer Council testing of children's school shoes (2025), chromium VI in leather linings.