Discount retailer Payless Shoe Source is helping buyers walk a few miles in green shoes with the expansion of their products to an eco fashion line.

Last year, Payless announced they would expand their products to include a line of earth friendly shoes, but without many specific details. Now, they offer a full line of shoes, purses, and other accessories from Zoe and Zac with green characteristics throughout.

Zoe and Zac uses natural fibers like organic cotton, hemp, jute (plant), and recycled products like rubber and plastic for elastic banding, as well as water-based glue. In addition to eco fashion, and like any true green company, shoebox packaging consists of 100 percent recycled boxes and soy-based ink.

In using natural fibers, cleaner inks and glues, products are made without metals like buckles, without pesticides (for organic cotton pieces), and without requiring excess raw material extraction.

Payless has said selling eco fashion is important because it shows that being green can be affordable. No argument there. But, maybe an expansion of ideals is really in order. That is, selling eco fashion is more than being part of the trend and making that trend affordable so that middle America, the majority of retail shoppers, will purchase at Payless.

Selling eco fashion is about converting corrosive and destructive manufacturing practices into products that do not take away from the environment, but, dare I dream, enhance it? Thanks to Zoe and Zac, Payless is planting one billion trees as part of its initiative to green the Zoe and Zac product line.

This is true environmentalism. Additionally, how about selling more than one eco brand? Maybe not all customers are looking for a cotton shoe. Maybe, to reach the plethora of customers, the company will need to find and sell an eco brand that offers boots made from recycled leather, or a stiletto made using cork. In this case, more really is less.

Payless, you have an opportunity here to be a world-class business. So many eco brands are misunderstood by customers and are out of the reach of consumers who are now turning to discount department stores due to the state of the economy. For some, eco fashion is understood as a bland beige product infused with specks of unknown recycled product, sort of a one size fits all concept. However, the Zoe and Zac brand is proving that eco fashion can be colorful, and much more.

Again, an expansion of eco brands can be the answer as it will continue to close the misunderstood cycle of eco products and make eco fashion much more interesting to consumers. The more interest, the lower prices can go and the more profits for Payless.