Seventeen years ago, it all started with a broken sandal. This is the story of how Indosole grew from a roadside idea in Bali into a recycled footwear brand worn in more than 30 countries, and of everything we learned along the way.
Part A: The Roots
Kyle Parsons was walking through Seminyak when his sandals broke, leaving him barefoot on the sidewalk and in need of a solution. Not long after, he spotted a rustic pair of sandals with soles made from old tires in a small Bali boutique. Something clicked. What if you could combine the natural, artistic spirit of Bali with a genuinely comfortable product, and help solve a global pollution problem at the same time?
And it is a global problem. Every year, billions of tires end up in landfills or dumped across our land, and they never decompose. Left lying around, they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread diseases like malaria, dengue and Zika. When they're burned as cheap fuel, they release toxins that harm both the planet and our health. Giving those tires a second life became the mission, and it's been our mission ever since.
In 2009, Indosole officially began. We collected old motorbike tires from the side of the road and hand-cut them into sandal soles, right here in Bali. The idea was simple: reimagine waste, support Indonesian artisans, and create something useful from what had been thrown away. Everything was made locally, with the lowest carbon footprint we could manage.
Those early years were a real labour of love. Alongside Indonesia's talented artisans, we handmade 10,000 to 15,000 pairs a year and sent small batches of beautifully imperfect sandals out into the world. We learned how to work with tires one step at a time, and the learning curve was steep, with plenty of failures to go with the wins. In 2014 we became a certified B Corp, and slowly the world started to warm to the idea of recycled products.
But we also learned a hard truth: a good story isn't enough. If our sandals weren't comfortable, good-looking and something people genuinely wanted to wear, none of it would matter.
Part B: An Evolution of Process
The more we worked with waste, the more we realized we weren't just a sandal brand. We were a solutions company.
So we kept pushing. Our goal became using more of every tire. The rough, hand-cut motorbike tires of the early days gave way to smoother truck-tire sidewalls, which made our footwear far more comfortable and ergonomic. But even that process still left waste behind, and the waste bothered us.
By 2017, demand for Indosole was growing faster than our handmade process could keep up with. We were proud of what we'd built, but the way we were working wasn't sustainable as a business. So we made a bold decision: we paused operations and went back to the drawing board with one goal. Use 100% of the tire, and create the perfect sandal.
We re-engineered everything. Waste tires are now ground into a fine tire powder and pressed into durable, consistent soles, using our SETT recycled tire technology. In 2018 we launched the all-new ESSNTLS line built on those soles, the same ones you see today. The new process meant less waste, a more consistent product, and, for the first time, the ability to scale our impact and make sandals at a much bigger level. What began as a craft had become something that could truly grow.
Part C: 17 Years, 3 Technologies, One Team to Carry It Forward
Waste is only waste until someone finds a better use for it.
If someone had written the book on turning waste into new material, we'd have bought it and read it cover to cover. That book doesn't exist, so we've spent seventeen years writing it ourselves, from the trenches: testing new methods, failing, and going back to the drawing board again and again.
Sometimes it got messy. There were waste-material dust storms, with particles of every kind hanging in the air. But every time the dust settled, we were left with something special. Today, Indosole has honed three recycling technologies:
🛞 SETT recycled tire soles: waste tires, ground into tire powder and pressed into new soles.
🌊 Riversole: discarded flip-flops pulled from rivers, combined with our own sandal offcuts.
👟 Recycled sneaker soles: waste sneaker soles, ground down and reborn as new ones.
Together, they've turned into fashionable, functional footwear and premium accessories. From one broken sandal in Seminyak, Indosole is now distributed in more than 30 countries, with shops across Bali, our HQ in Canggu, and continued growth across Southeast Asia.
Through it all, our goal hasn't changed: to get people thinking on a higher level while making environmentalism fun. If a pair of Indosole sandals can inspire someone to choose more responsible products in their everyday life, then we're doing our job.
As pioneers in recycled design, we want to pass what we've learned on to the next generation. We believe transparency in our processes and well-chosen materials are the true benchmark of responsibility, and that together we can inspire a higher consciousness for recycled products and environmental action.
Seventeen years in, the journey's far from over. Thanks for coming along for the ride. See you out there! 🌿
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