Last summer, not long after Lionel Messi became a team-mate of his at Inter Miami, DeAndre Yedlin was idly scrolling through his Instagram. Among the content served up that day by the algorithm was an intriguing-looking football boot.
“I think it was a special green one for William Troost-Ekong from Nigeria. I saw that and thought it was just cool looking, so I clicked on it and started seeing how sustainable the boot was, how it used recycled materials and all of that sort of thing.”
The boots were by Sokito, a new brand founded by Jake Hardy a football fan who had been disappointed by the beautiful game's lack of focus around sustainability. While on holiday in Vietnam, Hardy met a tour guide called Kito who took him to a market where he saw people making shoes from leather offcuts.
