By DAVID TWIDDY
AP Business Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  –  Payless ShoeSource is going green as it plans to sell a line of ecologically friendly shoes and handbags at prices that preserve the chain’s reputation for bargain footwear.

The Topeka, Kan.-based chain was to announce the new line Monday with the first 8 to 12 styles of women’s shoes being introduced in between 500 to 1,000 of its 4,500 stores and its online store early next year. The shoes will sell for an average of less than $30 a pair and be joined soon with styles for men and children.

The new brand, which has yet to be named, will be made from materials with less effect on the environment, such as organic cotton and linen, hemp and recycled rubber outsoles, the company said. The shoes will be produced on special machines that use biodegradable glues and be shipped in boxes made of recycled materials.

But these will not be your father’s Birkenstocks, either, continuing the company’s push in recent years to improve the fashion and design level of its products.

“At the end of the day, what you’re trying to do is really democratize ‘green’ here,” said Matt Rubel, chief executive officer of parent company Collective Brands Inc. “We want to bring it to the people in a way where it brings compelling value and compelling good things for the planet.”

Payless is not the first company to get into the eco-friendly shoe business.

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for research firm The NPD Group, said companies such as Patagonia, Timberland and Teva have pushed an environmentally aware message with their shoes for years. They’ve been joined by smaller brands, such as Keep, Keen and Terra Plana.

But the sector still represents less than 4 percent of the overall footwear market, Cohen said, reflecting both a huge opportunity for a retailer who can successfully appeal to consumers’ desire to reduce their environmental footprint and a big challenge as some shoppers are skeptical after other “green” products failed to live up to the hype.

The typically inflated price tags of eco-friendly products don’t help, either.

“If you’re going to play the green card, you’d better be sure that the product can stand up to the scrutiny that the consumer and the watchdogs are going to put on it,” he said.

Cohen said Payless’s strength will be that it’s already considered a value retailer, and “eco-friendly combined with econo-friendly works. That will get you success.”

Rubel said Payless is able to keep its prices low by using its large market presence to get better deals on materials and, since it negotiates directly with its factories in Asia, can avoid some of the price markups other brands add on their way to the market.

“This is a movement from our perspective about the planet and the people of the planet,” he said. “So to keep part of (the movement) inaccessible to them is inappropriate and something that we’re going to do our darnedest to overcome.”

Rubel said the decision to make “green” shoes came as part of an internal look at reducing the company’s carbon footprint through use of more sustainable materials and practices.

“One of the things that came out of that was how can we lead by example,” he said. “We make more shoes than anyone, so why don’t we start there?”

He added that some of the lessons the company is learning through making and selling the new brand will be applied in the production of its normal shoe lines.

The company also is teaming up with Summer Rayne Oakes, a model and fashion/beauty expert for Discovery Network’s Green Channel, who is serving as the new brand’s “eco consultant.”

“It’s high time a stylish line of shoes can be both environmentally friendly and reasonably priced,” Oakes said in a news release.

Introducing a new product line in the midst of an economic slowdown may appear self-defeating, but Cohen said footwear is pretty recession-resistant.

“The consumer looks at footwear as an investment in their wardrobe,” he said. “They will replenish it as often as they have in the past and while they may slow down a little, they won’t slow down a lot.”