Indosole Blog & News

Paradise LOST? Everyday we are fortunate to wake up on the beautiful island paradise of Bali.  Bali has always been a land of contrast.  Shallow ocean reef and endless terraced rice fields; Ancient culture and new development; Forested volcanic mountains and hipster coffee shops. The beauty is being drastically contrasted by the ever growing trash problem affecting us globally and now locally on our beautiful island. Every time we buy plastics we adhere to the systems corporations have established as our now normal. Big Players like Coca Cola produce 200,000 bottles per minute and 3 million tons of virgin plastic every year. This past Saturday, Feb 15th we came together to try and do something about it. A collective of 12,500 Women, Men, Children; locals, expats, business owners and tourists; coming together in 115 locations to collect over 20,000kg of waste in one day. For the past 4 years in a row, Bali’s Biggest Beach Clean-up has been lead by: One Island One Voice, Bye Bye Plastic Bags, Liina Klaus, Potato Head and Indosole for a truly localized global initiative. We spent our morning at the beach with Liina Klauss, an artist, environmentalist and a true Good Human. She has made it her life’s work to try and shed some light on what is happening on the beautiful island she now calls home. “I’m only making this horror look good so that you pay attention. Plastic in its single-use cannot be justified. Not with a rainbow, not with ignorance, not with convenience, money or time. We must not avert our gaze any longer. We need to stop the flow at the source. It is the only way and the time is now or never.” - Liina Klauss   That morning at our beach alone, our group of 32 Ocean heroes collected: 1200 flip flops 240 toothpaste containers and brushes 330 styrofoam pieces 400 plastic straws 37 PET bottles 310 plastic spoons and forks There is still lots of work to do to change industry, policy and way of life but these significant gatherings of people are moments to celebrate. Paradise not Lost, just a bit hidden.    We will do our best to get you back. #balisbiggestcleanup, #oneislandonevoice, #byebyeplasticbags, #potatoheadbali, #greenschool, #tidakplastikdibali, #liinaklauss, #indosole

We are proud to announce a partnership with SurfAid Organization during this holiday season. Together, our goal is to promote the well-being and general health of women and children in Southeast Asia and beyond. www.surfaid.org Similar to Indosole, SurfAid began with a trip to Indonesia where the founder - Dr. Dave Jenkins was impacted by seeing women and children dying of malaria, malnutrition, and inadequate living standards. Dr. Dave decided to do what he could to stop the suffering. Now, SurfAid runs programs for Water & Sanitation, Malaria, Nutrition, and with community health centers. Read more here: https://www.surfaid.org/founders Indosole will do its part by offering a special deal on our popular Tan Burlap sandals and donate 15% of web sales back to SurfAid.

We caught up with our friends from Bureo Skateboards to find out a little more about the company, where it came from and where it is going! For those who don’t know, Bureo was started by Ben Kneppers, an outdoor enthusiast with a passion for the environment and of course skateboarding; David Stover, a surfer with great respect for the ocean and Kevin Ahearn, an engineer that brings this knowledge to the world of sustainably made skateboards. Tell us a little about your product and how it came about? While living in Sydney, Australia back in 2012, the idea sprouted as the team made it a mission to find solutions for plastic pollution in our oceans. The goal was to develop fun and innovative products from upcycled plastic waste by creating a sustainable collection program that gives back to coastal communities. Brainstorming ideas eventually led to plastic skateboards and faced with a multitude of plastic debris, we became intrigued with fishnet waste, highly durable materials that are a massive source of plastic pollution in our oceans. From there, we spent several months in a plastic engineering lab to study the fishnet materials, and develop a recycled formula for our skateboards. What made you aware of the situation in Chile and how did you begin to do something about it? People think the reason we are working in Chile is because they have a huge pollution problem, but the fact is ocean plastic pollution is a global issue. We began in Chile because they gave us the opportunity to do something about it. In addition to the funding we received from Northeastern Universities IDEA Venture Accelerator program (IDEA), we received critical seed funding from the Start-up Chile program, which allowed us to bring our ideas to a proven product. We were also supported by World Wildlife Fund Chile and a collection of fishing syndicates that were open to support our project from the very early stages. In the first year of operations in Chile, we spent a significant amount in a few select fishing villages. During this time we explained our objectives with the communities and began working with the fisherman to responsibly collect and recycle their fishing nets. We are now working to further establish our relationships with these communities and expand our collection programs. What does Bureo mean and why is it important to you? The name ‘Bureo’ comes from the language of the Mapuche, the native Chileans, and means ´the waves’. Selected in honor of the Chilean people, the name represents our mission. Just as a wave originates from a disturbance of wind along the ocean surface, Bureo is starting with a small change in an ocean of plastic. Through time and energy, the waves of Bureo will develop the force required to cause real change. We wanted to recognize Chile, as they gave us the opportunity to launch our project. We hope that we can show them, through our actions, how grateful we were for their support. What is Net Positiva? Net Positiva is our fishing net collection and recycling program. Currently, it is operating in three communities in Chile with plans to expand this year. Through Net Positiva we aim to work with fisherman to ensure their gear is disposed of properly.  We have plans to continue expanding Net Positiva in Chile and other global regions. We hear you’ve found yourself a collaboration with Patagonia, tell us what this means to Bureo? We have always looked at Patagonia as the benchmark for delivering quality products while maintaining a high standard of responsibility at many levels. It was awesome to be able to share our plans and goals with a partner that aligns so well with our vision. Gaining the support of Patagonia through their $20Million & Change fund ensures that we are able to continue developing Bureo. This includes expansion of our current programs in Chile, and exploring projects in new regions. Tell us about your distribution, are you doing anything to prepare for the upcoming holiday season? We just launched sales in the US in September. Currently we are just getting our boards into select retail location, and offering product on our online store. We are running a recycling program in Chile to collect 6-7 tonnes of fishing net in the next 6 weeks, so this will keep most of the team busy before the holiday! A part of our team has stayed behind in California to keep distribution going, and to make sure we get our boards out for the holidays. We think the Minnow cruiser board is pretty high on a lot of wish lists…followed closely by a pair of Indosoles of course! We thank the Bureo crew for taking the time to let us know a little more about their awesome skateboards. You can find them at www.bureoskateboards.com

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.

Huge thank you to Transworld Business for featuring Indosole in supporting the launch of Balifornia 2014. Read the Article here: Indosole Launches 2014 "Welcome to Balifornia" Collection

Dear Indosole, I am writing to you from the Amazon. Its been a crazy trip to get here, Bali-Kuala-Paris-Madrid-Rio-Saopaolo-Belem and finally Macapa where the journey continues by boat. It took me almost 4 days of traveling by plane, bus, taxi, and boat to get to the opening of the amazon river where the Famous Pororoca tidal bore starts. Apart from all the traveling, the trip is exactly how i like them: lost in the middle of nowhere, with a hammock as a bed, surrounded by the craziest wildlife, and going to surf the most original type of wave. We surfed every day but unfortunately the wave didn't come as big as we hoped. Luckily the Ocean Nomads team and I managed to film every spectacular moment of this crazy adventure. On the 3rd day of surfing i got ripped out of the boat by the leash and board of another surfer that lost balance and fell off while passing the wave. The impact was huge i thought i was dead and then that the fins cut my head really bad, but by luck i just got bruised up pretty bad. Thinking i survived a traumatic incident a few minutes later i found out that Ugo the co-host of the show got crushed by a jet ski and was badly injured. So we rushed back to the boat to find him almost paralyzed thinking he broke his back or hip. He left instantly to the nearest hospital that sent him back to Macapa to get X-rays. I stayed back with the film crew for the last day of surf because there was no boats to bring us back with him. With no news hoping for the best we met him back at the hotel in Macapa where we found him better but still limping. I guess all this is part of the adventure. I am on my way to Rio now with a 2m swell coming this week-end so i will send you another post card soon….Stay stoked. Aloha, Teiki

Thank you to the KTVU 2 news team for featuring The Church of Surf! New shop breathes life into San Francisco's Outer Sunset https://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1

Guardians of the Forests"Large scale conversion of forests to other purposes has failed to promote local people's prosperity. On the other hand, the indigenous people have proven that they are the real guardians of Indonesia's rain forests. It is time for the state to return full rights to the indigenous people to manage forests, not just for their own sustainable benefits, but for the rescue of the entire planet."