Indosole is making durable, affordable footwear from tires headed for the landfill. We think they’re pretty cool.
At the sensory overload ballyhoo known as Outdoor Retailer, where the big brands strut their stuff and up-and-comers in the outdoor industry yearn to be heard, it’s easy to miss any of the countless incredible stories waiting to be told. Somehow, some way in between stationary bike propelled paddleboards and scratch-and-sniff school bags we found Indosole, a small start up with a big purpose.
But we’re not the first to notice. Founder and CEO Kyle Parsons is known for a TedEx talk he gave in a completely recycled wardrobe. Eyewear made from recycled baseball bats, pants made of hemp, a shirt from plastic and a belt from bicycle inner tubes. On a trip to Bali in 2004 he bought some cheap sandals made with tire rubber. Five years later, Indosole was born.
Their model is simple: Insoles are made in Indonesia and are a B- Corp Certified company, a global organization of more than 1,000 companies worldwide that promote healthy and safe working environments. Their practice is sensible: take rubber from a constant stream of the 1.5 billion tires discarded each year and put them on the soles of people’s feet. As there is no shortage of tires in the world or Indonesia, nearly 60 percent of them are refused to become factory fuels, harming the already declining air and ground water quality.
Indosole is taking a bite out of the landfill and pollution and creating decent jobs in the process, turning trash into trend. Now, that’s cool.
