The 210 Footwear Foundation is all about "shoepeople helping shoepeople". We're down with that! Nice letter from 210 President Peggy Meill.
Jul 20, 2010
A letter from the Two Ten Footwear Foundation
We get lots of questions on how we maintain and ensure that our footwear factory overseas is providing a quality work environment for all employees. It’s a great question and we’ve written about such related practices previously here in the Sole Blog. But when trolling through some of these earlier posts I realized that we have not specifically laid out our criteria, findings, and notes in one clear and concise post. So here it is!
- Worker pay. The workers at Sarada Indistries, the factory we employ in Vijayawada, India, pays a fair wage to all workers well above the country base line for pay in this industry which I have to tell you is scary low. Unfortunately we do not have direct control over this as we do not own the factory. We have spent significant time there though, and in speaking with workers directly have learned that they are paid well and often it is the best paying job in the area for them!
- Worker conditions. After having spent significant time on the factory floor Rao and I can comfortably describe the factory as: Highly Functional. Much like you would expect a Toyota auto factory except WAY smaller and less high-tech. Everything and everybody has a specific purpose and process they follow. Defining functional means that adequate lighting and safety precautions are in place, each worker has a comfortable space to work within, a breeze and fresh air comes through large open windows, and ceiling fans provide a nice cooling effect in the warm South Indian climate. Hazardous materials are not used in the production of Common Soles footwear, in fact, our products are so simple that most materials and tools used to assemble them can be found in the typical homeowner's garage throughout the US.
Jul 06, 2010
Summer soles!
No words needed. Thanks Rigoli!
-Dave
Jun 16, 2010
Innovative and eco-friendly packaging options
Many brands have gotten quite creative with their packaging, offering innovative eco-friendly packaging instead of the classic cardboard box. A few of our favorites are from Timbuk2 and PACT. Timbuk2 has taken it to a whole new level by printing a map of the city of San Francisco on the outside of the plastic bag they ship their bags in. The map is dubbed “a waterproof San Francisco bike map”. Sweet! It’s amazingly detailed, and even has some of the companies favorite points of interest marked off on the map. We applaud this move as it gives a simple shipping bag a useful afterlife.
PACT has gone the full eco-route with their packaging. Claiming that you can toss the packaging in the dirt and it will completely decompose, label and all in less than 45 days. Cool!
We are a bit more basic here at Common Soles. Typically using the Priority Mail boxes provided to us by the US Postal Service. The boxes are made from post-consumer paperboard so they aren’t all bad! We also use the Tyvek envelopes from the USPS. Tyvek is a product of the DuPont Company, and is a brand of spun high-density polyethylene fibers, a synthetic material. So boo on us… DuPont does offer a recycling program for those of you interested in a proper afterlife of your used Tyvek envelope. More info on that here.
Jun 10, 2010
Common Soles now for sale in Newport, RI
For those of you heading to Newport, RI this summer please be sure to stop by and see us at Potter & Co at 172 Thames Street. Potter & Co. has been offering casual, lifestyle, and functional clothing and accessories for over 100 years to both the locals and tourists of beautiful Newport. Lucky for us, Chafee Emory, Potter & Co's new proprietor (and ripping sailor) took a fancy to our story (and product) and as of today you can get your soles from her as well!
We've been getting the question of what we do with our seconds from many of you so I figured I'd write up a few quick words on the afterlife of a second quality Common Soles flip-flop.
Any seconds, or flip-flops which are made in our factory and don't pass our quality tests are either: 1) disassembled and re-made into new flips, 2) given to whomever is standing there at the moment who may want them..., or 3) donated to Soles 4 Souls (only if they are deemed wearable, with minor cosmetic flaws only) .
May 24, 2010
The reality of being a green business
Rao and I strongly believe that all businesses need to incorporate the consideration of environmental health into their business strategy and practices. We have made it a core tenant of the Common Soles business model from the beginning. Since making it public that we were going to be an environmentally conscious business we have made some significant headway. On a product side we have incorporated re-purposed materials into all our flip-flops. Components made from coconut shells and natural woven jute are prime examples. We also do not leverage heavy machinery in our manufacturing. All assembly is done by hand in the factories that make Common Soles. Cool!Our day-to-day business practices are also an area we have brought in the green perspective. We print very little paper in our office, relying on electronic files for just about everything. We keep the windows open, and rely on natural light as much as possible. In fact, the only items using electricity at Common Soles this moment (4:14pm) are two laptops, a label printer, and a phone. Not much at all! But that is only part of the picture…
The truth of it all is that being a green business is kind of a complicated prospect. Being truly green would require us to not consume any resources at all. In the same time we would somehow be improving the environment all while still being a business and generating positive cash flow from operations. Yah – that’s a challenge. Greening your business is tough. Just sending an email consumes resources, according to McAfee, email consumes an enormous amount of resource. Recently McAfee released a report called “The Carbon Footprint of Spam”. Some key findings were:
- In 2008, 62 trillion spam emails were sent (wow!)
- Spam emails used 33 billion kW/h in 2008 in order to be processed (that is equivalent to the energy use in 2.4 million homes for a year, or it is equivalent to using 2 billion gallons of gasoline)
- Spam filtering is equivalent to taking 13 million cars off of the roads; one spam email requires the same amount of energy as driving 3 feet (the annual volume of email spam requires enough energy to drive around the earth 1.6 million times)
The primary reason for such high numbers is a result of the enormous amount of electricity data servers consume. Server farms are no joke. These super-rooms are highly climate controlled warehouses stacked with electricity gobbling servers humming along 24/7/365.
So how does that all compare at the end of the day with sending just 1 email from 1 person to another? Well, the report states that an email produces about 9 grams of CO2 per. Compare that to the 20-25 grams of CO2 for a traditional piece of mail sent via the postal service and yes – you do have a “greener” solution. But is it really greener?? I don’t know about you, but I get WAY more emails then I ever did regular mail. So when you add up all those emails – net loss. Bummer…
So the reality of being a truly green business is a bit bleak. The intention of this blog post isn’t to bum you out – just to share some of our findings in building out and researching how to make our business a greener entity.
So please, have at it in making your work-place a greener environment. Because even if we all just do a little, it adds up to a number that actually makes an impact. Below are some resources you may find helpful – we did.
-Dave
StartupNation.com A basic guide titled “9 Steps to Greening your Business”
Fast Company Some best practices and ideas shared in an article: “50 Ways to Green Your Business”
May 20, 2010
Product tour video of our new Cocos Flip-Flop
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!
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!
Apr 16, 2010
Our first direct retail outlet is now open
Dave and I have been working the past few months diligently on getting out some new eco-friendly styles that he just blogged about and starting our first direct retail outlet. We opened our first mall cart in “The Parks At Arlington” mall in Dallas, TX just yesterday. Needless to say we are super excited. 
Why Dallas you may ask, we just like sunshine in everything we do. Having our own direct retail presence is a great way to connect with our customers and understanding firsthand what they like and don’t about our product’s and initiatives. If you are ever in Dallas area, please take some time to stop by and say hello. Thanks for your continued support.
Apr 15, 2010
Coconut shells, woven jute, rubber and some lacing!
Those are the major components of our latest style flip-flop. We just got them in and are thrilled with how they came out. Comfortable, stylish (at least in our opinion!) and responsibly produced from materials sourced local to the factory in which they were assembled. We’re working on dialing in the micro-initiative these flip-flops will be associated with and hope to have it all online shortly.
In the meantime Rao has been busy with our retail program in the SouthWest. If you’re in Dallas be sure to give him a shout. Being able to communicate with our customers in a forum outside the web will be very helpful for us in learning how people buy footwear. Also what folks look for in materials, fit, and styling.
Apr 02, 2010
Our favorite responsibly made Spring 2010 fashions
It’s spring time here in Boston, and we’re all out and about enjoying the sun, breeze, and adventure that comes with it. With that I’ve been having some great conversations with friends of mine on their favorite fashions this Spring. Fashions from brands that give a damn, and have built values based business models. Whether it’s incorporating organic and natural materials, giving back to the community, or leveraging responsible manufacturing processes. It’s all good!
(We'll get one out for the guys too.)
PACT Scales Boy Short ($22) 95% Organic Cotton + Give a good % back
NAU Dual Citizen Hoody ($150) Dual Layer Organic Cotton
PrAna Molly Denim Capri ($70) Organic Denim with Stretch
Common Soles Natya ($25) Responsibly Manufactured Flip-Flop (shameless plug..)
GoGaGa Messenger Bag ($118) Values based business that we dig!
Mar 15, 2010
Expanding the Conversation on Social Ventures
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 link to that .pdf
These benchmarks cover all the basic elements such as wages, child labor restrictions, sanitary conditions, etc. What they do not cover are environmental practices in operations. We have discussed our efforts in that area in previous blog posts and will have even more on that topic in the future as it is a concern we also strongly believe in.
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.
During that same time Rao has been focusing efforts on the south-west market of the US. Specifically Texas. We will have a lot more on that effort shortly.
Mar 05, 2010
Recycling in India
I always wanted to be a socially responsible entrepreneur and giving back to the community was a big part of it. That was the theme that got Dave and I together in this venture. The journey in this direction has opened a whole new perspective for us on conscious capitalism and environmental responsibility. We can’t help but notice and try emulating other businesses and initiatives in this direction. Here are links to some earlier blogs from Dave on some of the businesses we admire
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!
But it’s not all roses for this wonder material. EVA doesn’t break-down naturally and so it’s filling landfills across the globe with a product that doesn’t jive with nature. The manufacturing of EVA is a toxic process, and even though EVA scraps and used EVA can be recycled into new EVA – it’s not at all a green process.
Feb 01, 2010
Product testing - the Common Soles way!
Rao and Hema just got back from a trip to Goa where they put a few of our latest designs to the test! Goa is located on the west coast of India in a region known as Konkan. Known for its beautiful beaches and comfortable climate, Goa pulls visitors from all over the world as a resort destination. Perfect for testing out Common Soles flip-flops!
Jan 28, 2010
The music of our lives
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?
Here are some recent favorites for you to get things going for yourself: