iRi NYC is continuing its annual upcycling mission through a collaboration with Korea-based social impact brand New Year Market, offering handmade key charms launching on Wednesday, which could also be used as shoe charms.
iRi NYC x New Year Market.
Courtesy of iRi NYC
Every year, brand iRi NYC joins forces with organizations with shared social and environmental values to make small, meaningful products crafted from leftover materials from footwear production. While last year iRi NYC worked with the woman-owned upcycling brand Cueclyp to create cup coasters made from a surplus of neoprene fabric, this year’s offering can be applied to footwear.
iRi NYC x New Year Market.
Courtesy of iRi NYC
The project is also special because of who made the charms. New Year Market is committed to providing safe jobs for seniors who live alone or rely on the collection of recyclables to support themselves. The brand allows the seniors to become designers, teaming them with “juniors” to turn their ideas into joyful and meaningful merchandise.
This collaboration with New Year Market is in line with iRi’s goal of helping people of all ages freely express themselves. The senior team at New Year Market and the iRi team handcrafted the key charms/shoe charms, priced at $20 to $30. The charms, save for the hardware, are made from all upcycled materials from iRi NYC and New Year Market including scraps of knits from sock production, shoe laces and small leather scraps from shoe production.
iRi NYC x New Year Market.
Courtesy of iRi NYC
iRi NYC, founded by designer Janet Yeung, underwent a relaunch since its 2017 debut, focusing on more environmentally friendly production and distribution methods. Over the summer, the brand launched Concrete Sprout, its first collection featuring uppers made from 100 percent bio-based and/or sustainable materials.
In 2024, Yeung told FN about iRi’s path toward sustainable practices, explaining, “When we first launched, none of our products had anything to do with sustainable materials. But thankfully, once we moved our production to Korea, I was shocked that they have a lot of availability with sustainable footwear materials, finally, and they’re not too expensive. Or we don’t have to order 1000 yards of fabric to actually use them. So moving the whole production site helped a lot to finally incorporate more sustainable materials into our designs.”