SOLE Blog
April 11th, 2012
Spring Cleaning Also Includes Our Website
Spring is here and it's not only time for a fresh product line, but a refreshed SOLE website. It's been a little over 2 years since we've had a significant change to the design of our website, so we thought we'd shuffle things up for a number of reasons.
October 19th, 2011
Doing Good While Doing What You Love
At SOLE, we have the opportunity to work with some pretty great people. Some of them run 350 miles straight (Dean Karnazes, runner), some of them overcome incredible obstacles (Trevor Thomas, blind mountaineer), and some of them take something that they love and do good with it. Enter Mark Vaughn. Mark is one of SOLE's Sales Representatives based in Colorado. On October 9th, Mark ran the Denver Rock'n'Roll 1/2 Marathon with a group of people trying to make a difference. In a donation request letter sent to friends, Mark wrote: I am dedicating my race to helping provide clean water to communities in Africa. I'm kind of nervous about the miles, but I know that training with this purpose in mind will keep me going.
September 27th, 2011
Social Media Intern Wanted
SOLE is looking to hire a temporary Social Media Intern for our North Vancouver office. Students or anyone with relevant experience are welcome to apply. We offer a casual work environment, work experience, a letter of recommendation, free product, and (probably) your own office in our new North Vancouver Penthouse office space. The main websites/brands you'll be working with are SOLE and ReCORK.
July 18th, 2011
Learning How to Walk
BACKPACKER'S August issue has a great, 6 page article on how to walk. Think you have it all covered? Take a look and you may be surprised; you may be able to use their tips to improve your stride and end back and leg pain.
June 10th, 2011
Give dad some SOLE for Father's day
Looking for a Father's Day gift Dad will actually like?
February 16th, 2011
SOLE Loves Cork!
You might have heard that SOLE is sponsoring ReCORK, a natural cork recycling program. We partnered with Amorim to provide this service across the US and Canada. Restaurants, wineries, hotels and several other points of distribution are now collecting their used, natural corks and sending them to ReCORK to be recycled.
February 15th, 2011
Sustainable in our packaging
One of the best ways to become more sustainable is to simply reduce the raw material being used, which also reduces energy consumption when shipping the goods. We hang our flips and socks from recycled paperboard hangers. Our paperboard packaging uses 100% recycled (90-100% post-consumer), non-bleached, kraft paper. No foils or coatings that hinder recycling are used. We are working to use vegetable-based inks in the near future.
February 4th, 2011
Updates to our web store
To improve our online shopping experience, we recently made a few updates to our web store. The goal was to make the web store easier to navigate, allowing you to get to our products more quickly. For the web monkeys out there, this is called improving the usability of a website.
January 17th, 2011
2010 Achievements
2010 marked a lot of great milestones for SOLE:
- We launched our first fall/winter line of footwear.
- We celebrated the inception and growth of our ReCORK program.
- We were voted “Footwear of the Year” by Gearist.com.
- We successfully completed our 10th year as a brand.
August 31st, 2010
Inside SOLE's Weekend - The Beginning
The SOLE team generally spends our weekends away from the office and having fun. This is our first post sharing our weekend adventures with you. Here's what we've been up to the last 2 weekends.
June 17th, 2010
The Triple Bottom Line of Cork
Check out this video by our partner 100percentcork.org.
Carlos de Jesus discusses the environmental benefits of choosing natural cork in this video prepared for the Sustainable Brands conference in Monterey, CA. Take a look at how beautiful the cork oak forests are.
March 8th, 2010
Help Big City Mountaineers receive a $25,000 grant
The Pepsi Refresh Project is giving organizations and businesses the opportunity to win some serious cash by collecting votes. SOLE wants to help one of our partners, Big City Mountaineers (BCM), win a $25k grant, which will enable them to help more kids.
February 9th, 2010
SOLE won a SNEWS BOB Award!
SOLE won a SNEWS® BOB Award! Every year, Specialty News (news focused on the outdoor and fitness industry) gives Best Of Booth Awards to deserving booths at Outdoor Retailer. This January, SOLE won a BOB and we are very grateful, and proud.
January 6th, 2010
The Evolution of the Ecopac
As a part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability we are continually evaluating our design process to be more sustainable. We are proud to announce our most sustainable package ever, the clip package. Our new clip package is the 4th generation of our footbed package, and the 3rd generation of our Ecopac packaging.
December 30th, 2009
There's no good reason to be optimistic, but there's plenty of cause for hope
We at SOLE spend a lot of time concerning ourselves with sustainability. Our new packaging is 100% recycled, we have recycled content in our products and we have just initiated a program called ReCORK that collects and recycles cork in an effort to reduce waste, and increase education about deforestation and the value of forest ecosystems.
December 10th, 2009
Only 5 days left to submit a video to our Facebook contest!
Looking for some extra Christmas spending money? If so, we're giving away $1000 cash + $250 SOLE web store credit for the best user-submitted video on Facebook. To enter, simply create a short video explaining what "IT'S YOUR SOLE" means to you.
November 11th, 2009
WIN $1,000 from SOLE in time for the holidays
Today we are starting a new video contest on our Facebook page. Your challenge is to create a short video explaining what "IT'S YOUR SOLE" means to you. First prize is $1,000 and a $250 SOLE webstore credit! The Deadline to enter is December 15, 2009.
October 22nd, 2009
ReCork featured in the New York Times
When it launched its program to divert used wine corks from landfills in 2007, ReCORK America, a wine cork recycling program sponsored by Amorim of Portugal, struggled to find a viable means to recycle the used plugs.
The program collected 500,000 corks in its first year, and has now accrued nearly four million from wineries and retailers like Whole Foods Markets and, most recently, American Airlines.
Many of the corks were sent to a certified factory in Portugal for remanufacturing - a tack that proved costly and racked up a large carbon footprint.
October 5th, 2009
SOLE Partners with ReCORK America to Produce Footwear from Recycled Natural Wine Corks
SOLE, the manufacturer of premium footbeds, socks and sandals, announces its partnership with ReCORK America™, a US-based wine cork recycling program sponsored by Amorim of Portugal, the world's largest producer of natural cork. SOLE will use a blend of recycled cork wine bottle closures in its line of 2010 footwear products
September 30th, 2009
Now open, new web store clearance section
Our new SOLE clearance section is open for business. Inside you'll find great deals on seasonal & discontinued products, while supplies last!
September 4th, 2009
Jordan Romero Summits Carstensz Pyramid
At age 13, Jordan is the youngest person to reach the summit of Carstensz Pyramid. This is an excerpt from his blog that was written by Patrick; their guide in Nabire:
And so it is. Today in the 2nd of September 2009, at 15.00 of East Indonesian Time this ...
August 12th, 2009
SOLE Launches Radio Frequency Identification System
"High tech inventory mangament system helps maximize sales
08.12.2009 - This fall SOLE, the manufacturer of premium footbeds, socks and sandals, launches an innovative new technology to help its retail partners efficiently maintain product inventory and maximize sales. SOLE's new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system will track inventory in real-time with an integrated point-of-purchase display, product tags and a retailer website.
Most retailers only track sales on a monthly basis and they risk losing three weeks of sales if a product sells through in the first week of the month. Even if inventory levels are analyzed on a weekly or daily basis, retailers can still lose sales due to processing delays or shipping and transit times. Footwear is especially difficult to track and keep in stock because there are as many as ten sizes in any given style."
May 13th, 2009
SOLE launches UK website
We recently relaunched our SOLE UK Website. The new website features all the bells and whistles you have grown to love on our North American website. If you are located in the UK, you can now order directly from us online at yoursole.co.uk
April 28th, 2009
SOLE grows business with new sales force and staff promotions
"After seven years of relying upon an internal sales team, last year SOLE hired a network of regional sales agencies to represent its product line of premier orthopedic footbeds, socks and sandals in North America. In the six months since adding the new sales force, SOLE has opened over a hundred new accounts and today announced the promotion of two staff members."
April 1st, 2009
SOLE Donates $50,000 And Counting to Big City Mountaineers
April 1, 2009 (Calgary, AB) - Two years ago, SOLE, the maker of premier orthopedic footbeds, socks and sandals, teamed up with renowned mountaineer Ed Viesturs to create an innovative cause-marketing program in support of Big City Mountaineers. Today, SOLE and Viesturs are pleased to announce their program has raised over $50,000 to help get urban youth into the outdoors.
March 31st, 2009
Running Injury Clinic and SOLE Create Unique Partnership
Dr. Reed Ferber, Director of Kinesiology's Running Injury Clinic, at the University of Calgary, today announced a new partnership with SOLE.
February 2nd, 2009
SOLE featured on The Apprentice UK
SOLE Custom Footbeds were previously featured on season 3, episode 9 of The Apprentice UK edition. The Apprentice UK is currently airing on Showcase in Canada.
January 19th, 2009
yoursole.com officially launches!
7 months in the making, tons of Photoshop templates, miles of code, and countless cups of Tim Horton's coffee. The new SOLE website is officially launched! Everyone here at SOLE is very proud of our latest web offering.
December 15th, 2008
DK+ Signature Edition footbeds recently featured on MacWorld.com
Our DK+ Signature Edition footbeds were recently featured on MacWorld.com. Click Here to view the article.
December 2nd, 2008
SOLE Featured in The Huntin' Fool
The November 2008 edition of The Huntin' Fool features our custom footbeds.
November 3rd, 2008
2008 AR World Championship Begins
Team SOLE has arrived in Brazil for the Ecomotion Pro 2008 AR Worlds.
September 18th, 2008
Jordan Romero To Appear on Nightline
Jordan is scheduled to appear on ABC's Nightline later this week.
June 23rd, 2008
Jordan Climbs to 5th Summit
Jordan Romero reached the top of Denali on Thursday night (June 19th). He's now climbed 5 of the Seven Summits.