When Waste Becomes the Design Helen Kirkum starts with a pile of dead sneakers and builds something entirely new from the scraps. Her London studio has become ground zero for sustainable sneaker design, and the industry is taking notes. From Royal College of Art to the World Stage A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Kirkum developed her signature method as a direct response to sneaker culture's waste problem. The average sneaker takes 30-40 years to decompose. Helen Kirkum looked at those nu