Payless ShoeSource Launches First Affordable Line of Green Fashion Footwear and Accessories

Payless ShoeSource has just announced the launch of its new Zoe & Zac brand.  The new brand offers a full collection of shoes, handbags, jewelry, socks for under $30 and item as well as being touted as the first-ever affordable line of green fashion footwear and accessories.

The Zoe & Zac products are made from eco-friendly components and materials such as organic cottons and linen, natural hemp, recycled rubber outsoles, eco-friendly-EVA cushioning, and water-based glues for the shoes. Natural materials like dyed Tagua and Acai nuts are incorporated into the jewelry. Environmental concerns have also been incorporated into the product packaging which utilizes100 percent recycled shoe boxes and soy-based inks for the printing.

Zoe & Zac makes its debut this Spring with the collection featuring eight women's footwear styles, two handbags, three girls' shoes, and a range of accessories and socks.

Why is Payless looking toward "green" products?

"The sustainability movement is pervasive today and is touching so many elements of consumers' daily lives and they are interested in more and more green product options being available to them," said LuAnn Via, president of Payless ShoeSource. "But green items are often expensive and inaccessible to so many. Today, we are thrilled to launch the Zoe & Zac brand and to make green footwear and accessory products affordable, delivering new options for more people to take part in a more sustainable lifestyle."

"The most common misconception about sustainable fashion is that it comes in one color and looks one way -- neutral, boxy, baggy, shapeless," said Summer Rayne Oakes, Payless' eco consultant who is helping to deliver the new line with strong fashion and sustainable innovation. "The best sustainable fashion is invisible and that's what Zoe & Zac is all about. People like change and to wear the fashions of the season, and Payless is enabling consumers to do that in an affordable and sustainable way with this first-ever new brand."

Payless Gives to Benefit the Planet - 100,000 Trees

In conjunction with the Zoe & Zac eco-brand launch, Payless also announced today its alliance with The Nature Conservancy and its Green BOGO(TM) (Buy One, Get One Half Off) sale to partner with shoppers to raise money to plant a minimum of 100,000 trees to support The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees campaign dedicated to planting 1 billion trees by 2015 to help rebuild the Atlantic Forest in Brazil.  Payless will donate $1 -- the cost to plant one tree -- for every Zoe & Zac green brand item sold through May 4 and on every Payless exclusive reusable shopping bag sold throughout the year. For more information on the Plant a Billion Trees campaign go to www.plantabillion.org.