I've become uncomfortable with the modern use of the word "sustainability." It’s a worthy concept, but one that’s been overused and commodified to the point of abstraction. At its core, sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own—balancing environmental, social, and economic considerations.

At the Aurora Shoe Company, sustainability is not a checkbox or a label—it’s an ethic. A sensibility grounded in craft, community, and continuity. It begins with the belief that how we make things—and how we live alongside what we make—matters deeply.

We build our shoes by hand in a quiet corner of the Finger Lakes region of New York. We have never outsourced, and we don’t rush production. We build products that are made to last. Durability is our first and most fundamental environmental principle. In an age of disposable fashion—where business models depend on encouraging over-consumption—longevity is a radical act. When a pair of our shoes wears through, we re-sole them. When someone tells us they’ve worn Auroras for over a decade, we count it as both affirmation and a point of pride.

We work with honest materials: full-grain leather from the Horween Leather Company, robust Vibram soles, and solid brass hardware. Not for flash or fashion, but because these things endure. Full-grain leather, when responsibly sourced and maintained, outlasts synthetic alternatives and breaks down more cleanly over time. Every material choice carries its own environmental and ethical weight, but we believe durability and reparability lighten the load.

We also take care with our inputs. Our electricity is sourced from a local solar farm in Penn Yan. In the colder months, we heat our shop using a combination of low-energy electric heat pumps and a high-efficiency outdoor wood boiler fueled by responsibly harvested local hardwood. These aren’t choices we advertise—they’re simply how we choose to live and work.

Our shop is small, and purposefully so. Everyone here is a maker. We don’t have executives or managers removed from the production floor. There are no layers of detachment—just skilled individuals, each trained in multiple steps of the process, each contributing their expertise to every pair of shoes that leaves our factory. This shared responsibility fosters both accountability and pride. It also reminds us that sustainability is ultimately a human concern—about the dignity of work, the resilience of small communities, and the values that shape our daily rhythms.

I’ve come to believe that sustainability, properly understood, is about stewardship. It’s about doing the quiet, sometimes harder thing, because it’s the right thing. It’s about creating work that nourishes rather than extracts, and making products that carry meaning, not just utility. If you’re here reading this, I imagine you feel the same.

Thanks for walking with us.
—David Binns
Aurora Shoe Co.