Start Up Loan for Eco Footwear with a Motorsport Soul

A budding Bath-based inventor is in pole position to make a success of his new business after launching the first trainers with soles made from discarded Formula One and motorsport racing tyres.

Compound Footwear founder Alex Witty, 27, aims to convert motorsport fans and sneakerheads alike with his groundbreaking sustainable recycled footwear, launched with the help of a £25,000 Start Up Loan, facilitated by SWIG Finance.

It was a simple equation that set Alex on the road to business. “I learned that 24 billion shoes are made every year, while around 1.5 billion tyres are used globally,” he explains. “When tyres reach the end of their life, they are generally incinerated at concrete factories as an alternative source of fuel.

“As around 80 per cent of the shoes are made from rubber, I wondered: why not merge the two streams and try to negate the cost and the waste of tyre disposal? It was lockdown, and I had nothing else to think about.”

Alex was studying for a BSC in sustainable product design at the University of Brighton, and when the labs shut down, he converted his bedroom into a workshop and set up panini presses to melt and test unconventional materials such as ocean plastics, seaweed and coffee. “I wasn’t exactly flatmate of the year,” he joked.

Once lockdown had lifted, he travelled the world for shoemaking courses, meetings and talks with potential collaborators. Having started the research and development stage of the business by raising over £100k via UK grants and private investment, he is now working closely with motorsport teams including McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW, as well as Pirelli.

Tyres are shredded by a Northampton-based specialist, leaving pure rubber powder to be reformed into sneaker soles; the uppers are made using recycled materials, including leather and polyester. Design nods include Formula 1 front and rear wing designs, ERS tail lights and other subtle features.

The trainers are manufactured in Portugal, and the first 100 pairs of the limited-edition Monte Carlo C1 shoe were soft-launched by means of a pop-up event in London in February. Each pair includes a piece of genuine carbon fibre embedded into a custom swing tag, sourced directly from the Williams Racing Formula 1 team and used during its 2024 season. Most were sold by pre-order to customers as far afield as the USA and Australia.

Alex recently returned from the Monaco Grand Prix in May, where he oversaw photo shoots and worked hard to persuade drivers to wear his wares. “With our demographic and clientele, it works well to be seen out there,” he said.

Celebrity fans include French racing driver Pierre Gasly, who competes in Formula One for Alpine. “He can often be seen wearing our sustainable range to the Grand Prix, which is great,” says Alex. “There are currently 20 Formula 1 drivers in the 2025 season, so to have five per cent wearing your clothes is a success story for us.” Compound also sponsored Swedish driver Joel Granfors at the Le Mans 24hrs in June, its name emblazoned on the car for all to see.

The fact that Alex’s dad, Chris, worked in the motor racing industry in the 1980s, alongside luminaries including Ayrton Senna, has certainly been an advantage. “It’s possible word spread quicker as a result,” Alex says, “but nothing has come on a silver platter. Funding has been tough at the best of times; shoes are expensive to make, and you have to make a lot of them to get manufacturers to listen to you.”

Future plans include the next limited-edition shoe: The Sprinter, which will be lighter and more performance-related. Alex is also pushing for external Angel investment to finance some extra manpower. “At the moment, it’s just me – I am accountant, marketing, photographer, website designer. It makes for very long days, and if I’m busy marketing, I’m slow at shipping out shoes. It would be nice to have a team around me and to be able to work 9 to 6 and help optimise our fulfilment.”

With the help of SWIG Finance Start Up Loans Senior Officer, Suzy Lowe, Alex took out a Start Up Loan for £25,000. The first part, delivered in February 2024, paid for prototyping and testing the market; the second part, paid in March 2025, financed the first 100 pairs of shoes.

“I needed to upfront some cash to start generating revenue from sales, and didn’t have personal funds to draw upon,” he recalls. “I spoke to various financial outlets, and SWIG and Start Up Loans popped up constantly as the place to go for young entrepreneurs to take their first big steps in business.

“I remember the day we had our funding approved and available – it was joyous. It enabled us to take three or four years of work and put it into practice. I can’t say enough great things about Suzy – she made the whole thing super-smooth and took a lot of the stress out of a stressful situation.”

For her part, Suzy says: “Compound Footwear is a really exciting business - a brilliant idea and very well-executed. Alex is the loveliest young man, very switched on and so passionate about his project. He’s been a pleasure to work with and it’s an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Start Up Loans is part of the British Business Bank and offers personal loans of up to £25,000 and free mentoring to help anyone start or grow a new or early-stage business.

SWIG Finance is the Bank’s Business Support Partner for the government-backed programme in the South West, and last year alone delivered £7.2 million in Start Up Loan funding to over 400 new and early-stage businesses.

About SWIG Finance

SWIG Finance is a people-based lender that provides loans and support to help smaller businesses in the South and West Country grow. We base our lending decisions on potential rather than collateral, which means that we can often support businesses when others can't.  

We’re growing every year. In 2024/25, we lent £14.8m to 501 businesses, helping to create and secure over 1,272 jobs and generate £75.7m in social impact. Download the report here.

If you’d like an informal chat about your funding requirements, get in touch with our friendly and professional team to see how we can help: info@swigfinance.co.uk / 01872 227 930