We cover a lot of unusual collaborations here at Wonderland, but this one has definitely taken the cake for the most inexplicable – yet totally brilliant. Mercer Amsterdam, the sneaker pioneers who have been championing sustainable materials in their high-end collections over the last few years, have found a way to turn wine into… shoes?

I mean, we probably shouldn’t be surprised seeing as Mercer are also responsible for the first sneaker ever to be made from pineapple leather, in addition to a whole host of vegan & plant-based materials showing their passion for innovation and the planet, but we still can’t quite wrap our head around it.

Vegea, an Italian company that is NOT a winery but a group of technical biomaterial specialists, also hopped on the collaboration to aide Mercer. They saw that the main ingredient of wine leather is wasted products from Italian wine production, and wanted to give the boozy produce a new lease of life. The grapes are thus processed through technology developed by Vegea, which then forms the basis of the material, a smooth, soft and durable leather that is 100% sustainable and also recyclable.

That brings us to the W3RD Wine pack, featuring mesh made from recycled PET bottles and an EVA sole made with Algae (yes, like from the sea). With four colourways up for grabs, Mercer offer a variety of trainers, be it the simple yet bold black upper, an all-white moment, or even two pairs with electric blue and bright yellow highlights.

The collection is available now at merceramsterdam.com, but you best hurry, or a certain biblical figure might turn them into puddles of water, or however the story goes…