We are over 50% of the way to completing this initiative which rebuilds the small library and laboratory at the all-girls school in Purchuru, India. This rural school provides education to girls in the region who otherwise would not be able to go to school. Many graduates end up being the first in their family to go to university and/or get jobs in the city.

We are so close to funding this initiative via the sale of the Common Soles Natya and Aiman flip-flops. Help us hit that goal by picking up a pair for yourself or as a gift today! Think Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Graduation present, Wedding party gifts, whatever!

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We are excited to be working on our first US based initiative with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe in Cape Cod, Massachusetts! It all began when Rao and I thought it would be cool to expand our product offer to closed-toe footwear as well. Moccasins came to mind and we set out on a journey to find a source. Turns out that real moccasins are not only expensive ($100+ because they are handmade from premium leather) but not really all that practical for everyday use by most people. The thin leather sole provides little cushioning, and in our asphalt covered world – they wear out fast. Several consumer brands such as Minnetonka and LL Bean have built expansive product lines of modernized moccasins with shoe like soles which you can get pretty much anywhere these days.

During the process of learning about the American Indian, and traditional American Indian footwear we got quite the history lesson (a nice side benefit of working at Common Soles!). It turns out the local tribe to us here in Massachusetts has a long and proud heritage of working with Quahog shells and crafting them into beautiful pieces of jewelry (I wrote about this on Nov 4th). We met several times with members from the tribe and together came up with the idea of crafting shells into pieces of artwork that can be attached to the top strap of a flip-flop. Not only does the net product look good, but as our friends who have been test wearing them let us know “they are also great conversation starters”. Right on!

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2010 is already shaping up to be a good year for us! Earlier this month we realized the successful completion of our first initiative. The goal was to generate funding to purchase new school books and supplies for the children of the workers in the factory that make Common Soles flip-flops in Vijayawada, India. Check out the details and photos from this event on our initiatives page.

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Rao is back in India working on product and initiatives. We hope to have our first initiative fully funded in the next few weeks while he’s over there so we can wrap it up and get the kids new books!  He’s busy working with the folks over there in assembling that whole process and I hope having some fun while doing so!

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Yesterday, Rao and I spent the day visiting with several members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.  Our goal was two fold: 1)to discover handcrafted footwear related items which we could bring into the Common Soles catalog  2)to learn about the community and what potential initiatives could be funded by the sale of said products via Common Soles.

Our journey was both educational and successful! We met with a kind women who handcrafts jewelery from Quahog shells found along the shores of Cape Cod. She produces amazing and beautiful pieces of jewelery from these shells.  Critical for her is not using any glues, cements, or other non-natural elements in the fabrication of the items. Only natural materials such as silver, leather or sinew.  Below is an exceptional pair of earrings we saw fashioned from quahog shells. Quahog's are an edible clam of the Atlantic coast of North America which boast a hard, rounded shell. The coloring of the quahog varies but the most common have a deep purple marbling effect on the base white shell.  

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