Chipkos

Chipkos is an eco-friendly footwear company. Our main product is the Chipkos Original Sandal. It is inspired by an indigenous Indian sandal called a kolhapuri chappal.  

Chipkos sandals promote the preservation of the environment. For each pair of sandals that we sell, Chipkos will adopt 100 square feet of the rain forest. Adoption of the rain forest ensures the protection and preservation of the adopted land, as well as the species and natural resources that exist on it.

Chipkos sandals are made from eco-friendly materials including sustainable tatami grass, recycled EVA and organic cotton.

By wearing Chipkos sandals, you are literally walking on the path toward a better tomorrow. The sandal's uniquely square shape represents the adoption of square footage and embodies the company slogan - Stand For Square Feet.

Guanacaste, Costa Rica is the first of many endangered areas which will benefit from Chipkos’ adoption campaigns. We aim to focus our efforts on one particular region at a time to make a significant, positive impact.

In addition to actually protecting the rain forest land in Guanacaste, Chipkos is a firm believer in creating a sustainable living environment for local Costa Rican residents. A portion of Chipkos donations goes towards hiring local community members to be park rangers, staff and educators of Guanacaste. The Guanacaste national park is run by an entirely Costa Rican staff recruited from rural surrounding areas and the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose. By paying fair wages to local residents, Chipkos is offering alternative income producing opportunities that work with the environment, instead of against it.

Chipkos funds efforts to educate the children of Costa Rica on the importance of maintaining fragile ecosystems throughout the world. Every 5th grader living within 50 miles of Guanacaste has been visited by an educator to talk about conservation and biodiversity. Chipkos believes that every child is born with an innate love of nature. By educating our children on the importance of conservation, we are protecting our shared future by instilling a deep commitment to conservation, as well as a sense of respect for and admiration of our world's natural resources.

By marrying the power of consumerism with the heart of environmentalism, Chipkos aims to truly make a difference in the way that the public can actively participate in environmental causes.

Additional conservation sites for Chipkos: Costa Rica; Corcovado National Park-Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica; Pantanal National Park, Brazil; Chagres National Park, Panama; Kunene Region Protected Area, Namibia, Africa

Our mission is to change the way that the public views environmental activism. Right now, to be defined as an environmental activist means to be an expert in the field of environmentalism, and to be so passionate about the cause that it defines your entire identity. Chipkos aims to redefine the word activist; we want to make each person feel like an activist in their own right, regardless of what their level of expertise or passion about the environment is. Only then, when masses of people come together, will we truly be able to make a significant positive impact for our shared planet.

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Priya Dua is the founder of Chipkos. She graduated from UCLA with a major in mathematics. Priya enjoys hula hooping, home-made juices, guest blogging for other green companies and writing posts in her own “Good Green Stuff” blog. Priya currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and American Eskimo.

Cause-related marketing of a footwear product for nature conservation efforts.

There are a handful of footwear companies that offer shoes made from eco-friendly materials. However, Chipkos takes our commitment to the environment to an entirely different level by including an adoption campaign with our footwear line. The first company to do so, the Chipkos brand aims to be synonymous with nature preservation and eventually, a better future.

Rain forest adoption is very popular in the non-profit sector; over $25 million was donated by private and corporate parties. However, these adoption programs are practically unknown to the general public. Chipkos is pioneering the inclusion of rain forest adoption programs into the consumer space. By leveraging the power of consumerism, Chipkos can make rain forest adoption a main stream cause and effort.

Although the environmental cause is important and a differentiating factor, Chipkos does not expect that just a cause alone will be the key to success. As a business that is offering a tangible, intimate product, we are always focused on the human experience for the consumer. We rely heavily on market research and consumer opinions to drive the course of our product line. Chipkos sandals have been through countless revisions, corrected for comfort and design, and are unique enough to satisfy the consumer’s demand for fresh, unconventional products that challenge the social norm.

Our products are inspired by Indian trends and culture. Even our name has roots in Indian heritage; we are inspired by the Chipko Movement, a historical environmental effort that first took place in the 1790s in the Himalayas of India. Indigenous villagers protested the logging of their land by attaching themselves to their trees. This was the one of the first environmental movements in the world, and was the inspiration for many future grassroots efforts and ecological groups that still exist today.

As we expand our product line, we will continue with this theme and bring widespread awareness to India’s rich and beautiful culture. Chipkos creates a holistic, ethnic experience for the consumer. By bringing Indian influence to the United States, Chipkos emobodies an ‘East Meets West’ concept, blurring the lines of culture and allowing everyone to come together for one, unifying cause.