What does one do with all the flip flop sandals that wash up on the beach? A Kenyan biologist turned businesswoman, Julie Church, has at least a partial solution. Inspired by the toys children were making out of the flip-flop debris, Julie Church, the Ocean Sole Founder, encouraged their mothers to collect, wash, and cut the discarded flip-flops into colorful products to sell at local Kenyan Markets as another means of income for their families.
Ocean Sole Flip Flop Art is a social enterprise that works to reduce waste and create colorful products while employing and empowering local communities in Kenya. Tucked behind a strip mall off Old Palm Valley Road is Ocean Sole - a studio that contains upcycled flip flops found along the beaches and waterways in Kenya. Flip flops turned into turtles, giraffes, manatee, hammerhead fish, zebras, hippos, rhinos, key chains and pretty much anything imagined or requested.
Flip flops on the beach
The Mission of Ocean Sole
Cleaning beaches, supporting coastal communities, marine conservation, creating sustainable employment and supporting education are all part of Ocean Sole’s mission. 100% of our profits goes directly back into our conservation efforts and enriching the lives of over 1,000 Kenyans through the collection of flip-flops and direct employment.
We are passionate about our people, purpose, and the planet. And through your purchase you are directly helping our efforts. We are a social enterprise, that upcycles washed up flip-flops found along the beaches and waterways in Kenya.
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Ocean Sole is Church's private sector attempt to educate consumers and producers alike. Sales have tripled in the last year and it is reaching a global market supplying some of the world's most famous zoos and aquariums. "Their shops are usually full of stuff that is so bad for the environment," Church says.
The Impact of Ocean Sole
Here are some ways that Ocean Sole is impacting the world:
- They recycle about a million flip flops a year and over one tonne of styrofoam a month.
- They aim to recycle a million flip flops year, recycle over one tonne of styrofoam a month, and save over five hundred trees a year - by using flip flops instead of wood.
- They contribute over 10-15% of our revenue to beach cleanups, vocational and educational programmes as well as conservation efforts.
- They collect 47 tons of flip flop waste per year and recycles 750,000 flip flops.
By creating these sculptures, we are creating employment for a country that has over 40% unemployment rate but we are also sending a message about how we can help our planet, our oceans and people, through creating beautiful art that portray an important message about the state of our oceans. Our business is all about the community. We support men, women, youth (18 to 35), fisherman and other entrepreneurs that are all part of our eco-system.
This helps to clean up the beaches and ocean in addition to saving hundreds of trees that would have otherwise been used. The company is based on community, ensuring that the people are as important as the product. Ocean Sole’s production manager, Idah Marangu, has just overseen the manufacturing of nearly 200 plastic bison for an American bison association.
“We want to have a social impact and be impact-driven,” said Smith, in between car rides to take 20 Ocean Sole masterpieces to the September Jacksonville Fall Home + Patio Show. “The artisans receive full payment, we create loans, scholarships, invest in a welfare program and the ethos is people focused.
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Ocean Sole Art
After a video on Ocean Sole went viral in 2017, Smith said the demand for the product increased, and people wanted to support the cause. “I love working at Ocean Sole. It is a non-profit that has a huge impact on conservation efforts, employment and cleaning beaches. “It is an amazing place,” said Smith. “We live on the Indian Ocean, which is why we are so passionate about the beaches.
Nairobi Flip-Flop Art Tour
The Art of Transformation
Once the artists are done with the raw materials you would never guess that the finished pieces were made from old flip flops. Taking a carving knife to a compressed block of flip-flops, Atwaa Salim Mohamed shapes an animal figure. The art ranges from small to life size and are bright, colorful and fun! This is a small sample of what is available and yes, they do custom work and ship globally!
Each piece is made with care and love, the story of each product begins as a flip-flop on someones feet, then its thrown out and ends up in the ocean. We collect it, clean it, compress it and then carve it into beautiful art to be revived again with love.
The Artisans Behind the Art
Jonathan Lenato, 30, is one such trained carver who sits shaping a dolphin - his seventh that day. Before joining Ocean Sole, Jonathan Lento was a herdsman in Samburu and did various casual jobs in different places. He has worked for Ocean Sole for seven years.
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Francis Mutua Muvua was a wood carver before joining Ocean Sole. He has worked with the company for three years and says that through Ocean Sole, he has “met different people. I am able to afford school fees for my children.
The Bigger Picture
Few and far between are the ties that bind all of us - all however many billion of us there are - together. But it is hard to imagine a connection deeper or wider than the Earth itself. This story is about how one intensely localized organization, Ocean Sole, is asking us to see the bigger picture. Their work is clearly defined and laser focused: they make art from recycled flip flops, washed up on the shores of Kenya.
But by doing something so mission-clear and specific, they remind us to take widest point of view. Decreasing plastic production won’t entirely solve the problem(s) though. "We are receivers of pretty much the rest of the emerging world's marine pollution," says Erin Smith, CEO of Ocean Sole. She estimates that flip flops-yes, the footwear-make up about 90 tons of the marine debris on Kenya’s beaches each year.
The Indian Ocean’s powerful currents deposit lost flip-flops, plastic bottles, and other debris up and down the Kenyan coast. These discarded materials mar the landscape and endanger sea turtles, birds, and other marine life. At Ocean Sole, some former woodcarvers have retooled their craft to make art from recycled flip-flops-some now in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Ocean Sole Team
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tags: #Kenya
