Common Soles (CS) sells flip-flop style sandals to generate funds to support critical community improvement initiatives in the manufacturing regions of the world.  Initiatives may include, but are not limited to, the improvement of health care, education, and sanitary systems.

We are not a charity, Common Soles is a business dedicated to building awareness and providing support for individuals from regions of the world that are known for manufacturing.  Often, these individuals do not receive the benefits that exist further up the supply chain of global brands.  Common Soles addresses this by selling footwear made by these workers to support initiatives that give back to these communities.

Mission:  Be a model organization on how all products can be effectively, efficiently, and fairly manufactured, distributed, and sold globally.

The Common Soles business model is relatively simple. We believe in "win-win" business practices over some more traditional models which net a "zero-sum" game. We also believe in creating a healthy business ecosystem where all members of the value chain work in harmony. Here's the sketch in our notebook that says it all.

• Identify opportunities and take action to improve the lives of those living and working in manufacturing communities.

• Partner with fair-labor factories, forward thinking brands, transport groups, and all other members of the footwear supply chain to innovate how we create and distribute product.

• Enjoy what we do, and share the joy.

For every pair of flip flops sold Common Soles allocates a % of the selling price per pair towards a given community improvement initiative.  The funds are collected by Common Soles and then dispersed to our local team to put the funds to work.  We cut out the non-profit middleman to eliminate red-tape and waste.  All additional costs to administer the funds are covered by Common Soles so your allocated % isn't eroded along the way! The % allocated varies by product, so we made sure to include the details on that in the product and initiative descriptions. This system is very efficient and you, the donor and supporter, see the benefit of your money being put to work much quicker and more specifically than by giving to certain other causes.   You could say we are “masters of the footwear supply chain” – or just “masters”.  That will do just fine!

Common Soles is devoted to transparency and, most importantly, that means that we are transparent with you, our customer. Therefore, CS will continue to use our various communication tools, i.e. blogs, website, twitter, etc..., to connect you with the factory workers and the initiatives that we are supporting in their communities. To do this, we will choose initiatives with reasonable dollar values that we can simply track and display our progress towards completion on our website. So you know that when you buy a pair of flip flops, that the allocated % of the selling price is directly contributing to a specific initiative and you can see the pictures of the people affected and check on the progress of the initiative. Then as our product line expands, we may begin branding our flip-flops based on the initiatives, so you will continue to see the value of your giving even as we grow.

Common Soles was founded by Dave Mesicek and Narasimha (Rao) Naraharasetty in 2009 and is managed by a dream team of entrepreneurial-minded souls in Boston, MA.  The people in the field who administer our community initiatives are our most valued team members.  We succeed only because of their dedication and hard work (and your support too, of course).

We source our flip flops from factories across the globe.  Most come from our facility in India, the location of our initial community initiative.  We carefully screen all factories to ensure fair labor practices, quality materials and construction techniques, and that eco-conscious practices are in place.

Great question! We don't own the factories that make our footwear so we can't just pay the employees more. We can however choose to only work with factories that pay a fair wage and offer good working conditions.  More so, we can get involved in the communities these folks live in and help support initiatives such as education and health-care to benefit all residents. So in a way, the problem of not being able to just pay the workers more has opened a door for us to enact a positive change for more individuals!

Yes! Email us at hello@commonsoles.com and tell us about the initiative and why we should get involved.  Be sure to include your name, email address, and phone number with each submission. 

Common Soles footwear runs a touch small so please size up whenever in doubt. For half sizes please size up. Most importantly do not let sizing get in the way of you enjoying a pair of Common Soles. We offer free returns and exchanges. (It's really simple, sort of like how Zappos does it!)

We created this handy size finder chart for the Saahi model. Click on it to open the .pdf file.

Visit our Contact Us page for all the details. We like hearing from you.

We’re small and we’re still getting started.  However, we have big hopes to make an impact in the world.  We believe that it isn’t fair that those in the early stages of the footwear supply chain receive the least value, especially those responsible for bringing a pair of footwear to life!  As we grow and become a more powerful entity, we hope to be able to fund larger and higher impact initiatives that make the developing regions of the world a happier and healthier place to live.  It’s only with your support that we can grow – so thank you for visiting and please stay in touch by reading and contributing to our blog or just dropping us a line.  Even better – pick up a pair of Common Soles to enable change today!