Indosole Blog & News

On November 14, 2015 we partnered with the non-profit charity Yayasan Solemen Indonesia to bring much-needed goods to a small community of scavengers living in Waringan (Sanur), Bali. Indosole distributed rice and 50 pairs of footwear to the community, while Solemen distributed 111 towels and 50 bed sheets donated by the Bali Dynasty Resort. The scavengers and trash pickers (known as pemulung in Indonesian) make a living by collecting plastic bottles to trade in for cash. According to the Waringan residents, 1 kg of plastic yields Rp. 3,000 (approximately $ 0.21). We were moved by the their resilience and sense of community – they get by on very little but their lives are not bleak. There was laughter, and smiles were in abundance. It goes to show that you don't need a lot of physical "things" to be content with life.              There are many communities in Bali that are in need of assistance and donations. To find out how you can help visit the website of Yayasan Solemen Indonesia. To learn more about how Indosole reduces strain on the environment by repurposing tires into the soles of footwear visit Our Story page.

The inspiration for this year’s collection ‘Pathways’ comes from our belief that life is a journey and there are many paths that we can lead ourselves down. We want you to forge the path to your dreams with this collection on your feet. ‘Pathways’ has taken Indosole’s signature products and made them more comfortable, practical, and fashionable than ever. Additionally, we have given urban dwellers something to rock on the city streets with our NEW RELEASES: The Kota hightop and the JJ lowtop for Men and Women. About the Kota: Kota - meaning city in Indonesian - is designed to be your new go-to hightop when cruising the big city. Aside from our signature tire soles, this shoe is unique in featuring repurposed tire innertube on the toe cap and voxing, making it durable for all your wild adventures - biking, skating or being out and about on the town. About the JJ: Meet the JJ, your new everyday versatile lace-up shoe. “JJ” is short for “jalan-jalan,” Indonesian slang for seeing the sights and tripping around. The JJ shoe’s signature soles are from repurposed waste tires and the durable voxing is from repurposed tire innertube, so get out there and jalan-jalan. New Patterns: This year’s patterns are inspired by the handmade ceramics of Native American tribes, and the spirit of self-expression and creation. Pathways designer and artist Alan Gonzalez explains, “I am inspired by those who are passionate enough to create and strong enough to make their own mark for the world to see.” Our new Indos are perfect for running around the city, whether you’re going from meeting to meeting or out and about with friends. Shop the new styles here!

Yogabarn – Ubud, Bali Indosole is proud to announce our entry into the world of yoga this week as we now have a location at the beautiful Yogabarn in Bali. This is a huge moment for us as we start selling Indo’s in a completely new industry and can’t wait to see how the Yogi’s like our style!! Yogabarn is a relaxing and genuine place full of calm and healing that really aligns well with our mission statement and engages people to want to conserve the environment as we do. So, if you’re ever in Bali and want a spot to rest yourself after a day on the water, check out our friends at www.theyogabarn.com and don’t forget to grab a new pair of Indo’s!!

“Welcome to Bali, do you have any plastic bags to declare?” After a year of campaigning, Pastika, the Governor of Bali, has met 12 and 13 year olds Isabel and Melati Wijsen from the Green School in Bali. Finally he has signed the Memorandum of Understanding to take measures that will see the use of plastic bags minimised on Bali by January 1st, 2016. Pastika said he was touched by the social initiative of the “child led action” that had gained such attention on Bali and around the world, following their recent talk at INK India. “I am not a hero, it is part of my job,” replied Mangku Pastika. He said he not only sympathized with the project, he loved it and wanted to support it. The Bye Bye Plastic Bags campaign began in 2013 when the two Green School students attended the GIN conference and decided to follow their role models to take action to make a change in the world. Since then, the girls have gathered a team of kids from local and international schools around the island to support them and have managed to collect over 60,000 signatures for a petition [www.avaaz.org/en/bye_bye_plastic_bags_on_bali/?rc=fb] to ban the use of plastic bags on Bali by 2016. At the meeting today, Melati told the Governor of their dream that one day all those visiting Bali would be greeted at the airport with the words: “Welcome to Bali, do you have any plastic bags to declare?” “It won’t be easy” said Isabel,“ but together, working with the Governor, and all the kids from Bali, we can return this island to the beautiful paradise it was.”

The Bye Bye Plastic Bags Girls, Isabel and Melati Wijsen, are putting plastic where their mouths are in a bid to force a meeting with the governor of Bali to highlight the plight of their campaign to rid the island of plastic bags. On November 24, the girls will begin a food strike as added leverage to get the governor, I Made Mangku Pastika, to meet with them and put a timeline on a law that will ban the use of plastic bags on Bali. The girls, who have just returned from India where they were met with standing ovations at the INK Conference in Mumbai, have been gathering widespread support for their campaign in a bid to ramp up more support for the Bye Bye Plastic Bags (BBPB) petition to raise a million signatures. "It is now time for Pastika to meet with us," says Isobel. "We and the team have done a lot of hard work to get our campaign noticed and it is only fair that Pastika takes the time, like many prominent people have now done, to talk to us about how we are going to stamp out the problem of plastic bags in Bali," says Melati. "If we have to go on hunger strike to get his attention, then so be it," says Isobel. BBPB is a social initiative driven by children, local and international, living in Bali between 10 and 15 years old who are committed to preserving the beauty of Bali by banning plastic bag use. The initiative was founded by Green School students, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, in late 2013 and is now made up of a dedicated team of 25 children, with more joining from around the world every day. So far BBPB have raised nearly 65.000 signatures for their petition through AVAAZ, spoken to more than 3500 students across the world in three different languages and is running a plastic bag-free program in a pilot village on Bali, with local authority’s approval, as well as raising general awareness at markets, events and festivals. The group have already garnered significant support for their lobbying of national and international media and have met and received the support of Jane Goodall and her Roots and Shoots program as well as the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki moon. This week the team won Bali Yak Awards and received a nomination by The Role Foundation for Green School to become a role model high school for 2014. The BBPB team have sent many letters to the government and Governor but he has still not made any effort to respond. With all the publicity surrounding the campaign the girls have decided to act now to speed up the process. They will NOT stop drinking but WILL refuse solid food from sunrise to sunset from November 24 until they have this meeting. On November 28, the girls are asking their school and all those on Bali aware of their campaign, to join them. For more information contact; byebyeplasticbag@gmail.com sign their petition here https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Byebye_Plastic_Bags_On_Bali/?aDjcKgb

It’s time to get personal! As we know, Indosole would be nothing without our super hard-working team over in Bali so we thought we’d share a little about two of our ‘Indo-Family’. Meet Komang, our factory Manager from Denpasar, Bali. Komang is 28 years old and has already been making shoes for 10 years – 5 of those for Indosole! Komang is the brains of the Bali operation and we are so glad to have her on our team! Komang likes to rock her favorite pair of black Kelapa’s each day when coming to work at the Indosole factory and who can blame her? They look great! Thanks Komang!! Meet Dodi... He is our upper construction worker who has been part of the Indosole team for 3 years and already a household name around the Bali factory. Dodi is originally from the city of Surabaya on the island of Java and is married with a one-year-old baby. His favorite shoe is the black Prahu so enjoys being able to make them too! Komang and Dodi are what we simply call “Great Humans” and want to thank them for all the hard work they put in to make the Indosole dream a reality. With Komang, Dodi and the rest of the crew in Bali by our side we are well on our way to saving 1 Million waste tires in Indonesia and making what we call “Soles with Soul!”

Indosole represents a lifestyle of resourceful creation. Each year, over one billion waste tires end up in landfills worldwide. We are on a mission to salvage discarded tires and give them new life as soles for our footwear. So far, Indosole has prevented over 30,000 tires from ending up in landfills and have turned those tires into over 60,000 pair of shoes. As a whole, Indosole features a toxic-free manufacturing process and does not use fuel powered machinery to make its footwear, just strong hands and minds. While based in San Francisco, CA and Bali, Indonesia the company's ethos is to take care of their people while chipping in to protect the environment's bottom line. We've partnered with organizations that contribute to the planet's well being and often conduct beach clean-ups, give backs, and community based events. B Corp is a natural fit for Indosole as it represents the values of our brand's integrity. Together, we believe we can produce high-quality products with a conscious effort to take care of our people while making our planet a better place to walk on.

Today we happily announce our newest team members Vivien and Louie! Vivien will intern with us in Bali supporting our Bali crew's daily missions for the rest of the year. Louie is stationed in San Francisco supporting the SF crew. Here's a little something from each of them... Vivien Hi there! I’m Vivien from Germany. I’m 21 years old and study International Business in Nuremberg. As an IB student I have the opportunity to study and intern abroad for one semester each. Since I love travelling and experiencing new cultures this fit perfectly into my plan. So far I’ve managed to live in the US for a year, spent my last semester in the beautiful city Cádiz in Spain and chose Bali as the perfect place to take my internship. When I started looking for an internship a couple months ago, my last but not least priority was that I wanted to intern for a company on a mission to do good. After all my research for the perfect company, I immediately felt connected to Indosole because it sounded like such a simple, yet so genius idea. I applied right away and – lucky me – got accepted closely after that. Cheers to a wonderful couple of months in Balifornia! Louie Hello everyone! My name is Louie and I’m the newest Intern here at the San Francisco office of Indosole. I’m 21, originally from London, England and am currently a third year at Northeastern University in Boston. I have just moved up from living in LA for the last few months and expect a completely new and different experience in the city by the bay, and whilst I know very little about baseball, GO GIANTS! As part of my degree I am spending a few months with Indosole to help out with any day-to-day work and hope to learn more about a growing start-up, along with sales, advertising and brand management. I'm having a great time selling Indos and Cocos at all our events so far, and love being able to be a part of such a great story!

Luxurious and hip are two perfectly suited words to help describe the island of Bali, Indonesia, and inevitably placing it high on the tourist destinations list. Bali has inspired tourists and transplants to help make and support Bali in becoming a cleaner and more environmentally conscious place. Change can come about through education, and with different inspiring projects and movements immersing,  this well needed change in Bali is definitely starting to be seen, and more importantly felt within the community. EcoBali recycling is undeniably at the forefront of these namely inspiring projects. It was Founded in 2006 by individualsd who unanimously had the burning desire to respond to the waste management issues in Bali and actually do something about it. Envisioning a 'Zero Waste' policy as their solution, EcoBali takes matters into their own hands by operating its own facilities such as sorting and material recovery. In providing services such as waste separation, recycling and composting, collecting an average 15 tons of non-organic waste every month, their sustainable solutions to waste management have replenished a staggering 50-70% waste reduction. With different initiatives, like adopt a school, within the project, EcoBali recycling aims to increase the inherent needed awareness on a broad spectrum, educating on the best environmental practices achievable among individuals, communities and businesses. Initiatives like this are a sign of greater things to come for Bali, allowing it to maintain its luxurious and unique status. For those who want to enjoy their stay in Bali without feeling guilty of joining that pollution bandwagon, ecoBali is the best and easiest solution. Do your research and get involved!