Lisa and I were recently traveling the South Island of New Zealand for two glorious weeks. It was absolutely amazing – New Zealand is indeed adventure-land. On several occasions when chatting with folks in NZ we found ourselves telling the tale of what Common Soles is up to. For the most part, everyone responds quite well to our story (or at least we tend to meet very nice people!). They can get into the Common Soles story quite easily, as most everyone appreciates businesses that take on a social bent.
What’s interesting though is where the conversation typically goes after the initial back-and-forth on what Common Soles is and what we are up to. 9 times out of 10 we hear stories of other small social ventures the individual knows of, either through a personal connection, or something they heard about via the media that resonated with them. Folks get incredibly excited to share the stories of these socially responsible organizations. It’s really neat experiencing the energy that is generated during conversations on social ventures. People get really excited about them regardless of their association with the organization, and regardless of whether or not they have even conducted a transaction with that organization!
The Fair Labor Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions. We fully support this cause and organization. Being a supporter is one thing, truly understanding he benchmarks they have outlined that constitute good working conditions is slightly more complex. The FLA has assembled a 28 page document that outlines the benchmarks used to determine if a factory is providing good working conditions for their employees. Here’s a 
I just got back from a two week trip to New Zealand. What an incredible country. The best way for me to describe it is: "Lake Tahoe meets Hawaii". It’s that amazing of a place. We toured the South Island and drew a TON of inspiration from the Kiwi culture as well as spoke with dozens of folks who live in flops year round.
EVA, (Ethylene-vinyl acetate) is some incredibly versatile stuff. It’s the elasticized polymer foam material used in most footwear to add support, structure, and cushioning. It’s incredibly versatile as it can be molded, dyed, cut, and shaped into just about any configuration. It’s incredibly inexpensive compared to the other materials used in footwear such as leather or rubber, and it’s darn easy to get good at working with it!
With Rao in India and not here to supervise me on a daily basis, things get a little crazy here at Common Soles HQ. So I declare that we should all listen to more music during the day! Good music certainly motivates me. What motivates you?
Common Soles is an act of entrepreneurialism. We identified an opportunity and assembled needed resources to get this venture up and going. For us, that was the easy part. The hard part is now sustaining the venture! In our journey to build the organization we have come across and met up with several other entrepreneurs, as well as taken calls and meetings with budding entrepreneurs all over. Often the topic is “how did you get started?”, or “what are the basic tools I need to get this thing up and going?” What has come out of all these interactions is what I’m calling the Entrepreneur’s Tool Box, or basically the tools that are nice to have at hand to anyone starting a business, regardless of industry or type.
Those of you who have been with us since the beginning (spring ‘09) know that we’ve been building Common Soles in real time and in an open and public manner. We’ve solicited you via Twitter, Facebook, this blog, email, grabbing random people on the sidewalk, etc. to garner feedback on everything from colors for our website, to the placement of the arch support in our flip-flops. We appreciate the time and effort you have given us and the candid (very in some cases) responses you shared. So thank you!
As Dave mentioned in the previous blog our quest for natural materials continues not only in India but from else where in the world. In parallel we are also working on our next designs that can use the latest technology available. We had success with laser engraving on the Men's Aiman style flip-flop and are now looking to utilize laser engraving in new ways. 
Rice Rubber Outsole: This stuff is amazing. The outsole is the very bottom of footwear, the part that connects with the ground. Most traditional outsoles are made from rubber or PU (polyurethane). Rice Rubber is a blend of several happier ingredients. It’s a base of natural latex rubber mixed with SBR or 
We’ve sparked a bit of dialogue from our last post on our 
Our Saahi and Natya flip-flops come delivered to you in a colorful organza bag. Organza is a shear fabric traditionally made from silk. We have ours made from synthetic filaments in the same factory that makes our flops during any down time they may have.