peace.love.good times
-those of us at Nomadic State of Mind
-a much needed thanks goes to all of you folks who have supported our company through the years: family, friends, and people who bought our stuff- you people are the best!
Company Policy and Environmental Concerns
What's up with Nomadic State of Mind sandals?
- thanks for asking. Currently a lot of our rope sandals are being made in a small out of work coffee farm in Nicaragua (the ones without the soles). In early 2002 Chris taught a small community how to make sandals in hope to produce a job for the community and create a flow of income, and have a lot of fun! Without a lot of fun-who wants a business? All of our artists are paid well, and our hopes are to grow the sandal business offering employment for more of the community. Although the cities are beginning to bustle in often forgot about Nicaragua, many jobs are difficult for people out in the country. Our sandal making process is time consuming, and after extensive training our sandal artists hand craft each sandal to perfection! We have been working with the ame group of people for nearly 8 years, and Nomadic State of Mind has been making sandals for over a decade. We began using VIBRAM soles for the bottoms of our sandals that we put soles on, we chose Vibram due to they years that Vibram has been soling shoes around the world. Our sandals with soles are made here domestically using vintage sandal making equipment. We cut the vibram soles, glue on using low v.o.c glue, this process is time consuming but we like using the abandoned machinery from companies who moved to the east..
In regards to waste and environmental impact. Sandal production produces some waste, in which we recycle a lot of it into our rugs, hand bags, and water bottle carriers, which also produces work/income in the off season. These rugs can sometimes be found on our website, and they can be custom made for YOU!
It was our desire to create a product where there was virtually no waste- almost there - about 85% of our waste can be recycled into other products.
Packaging- Excessive packaging is ultimately annoying. When you receive your sandals they are in a usps mail bag and tied together with a string. There is no “shoe box”, which we feel is a waste of both money and cardboard. We have a sizing/info tag attached to the sandal. That’s about it. We do what we have to appease our shipping needs, and nothing more. If you order a bunch of sandals they might come in a liquor box which we reuse from the local liquor store.
Our future goals and recyclables of used sandals. When our volume reaches and amount where it makes sense to attempt re extrusion project we are on it. We got a long way to go for that.
When we introduce new products, or friends products we attempt to evaluate environmental impact, energy conservation, and fun!
If you ever have any ideas or suggestions, we are all ears. Love you people!
What's new with Nomadic state of Mind and the organic T-shirts?
WE use domestically grown and sewn certified organic cotton, where we can. As a world, we now know a better way to farm (organic) Organic farming eliminates the use of herbicides, toxic defoliants, and synthetic fertilizers. Organic farming is non toxic way to farm; which in return helps protect our future generations and our planet. This is sustainable farming. Promoting a positive future outlook.
"BE the change you want to see"
The ultimate goal of “sustainable cotton” is to move sustainable production, manufacturing and use practices throughout the cotton value chain in order to create a healthy and profitable industry for growers, their communities, manufacturers, retailers and users of all cotton products.
The conventional cultivation of cotton leads to massive environmental and health problems. Around the world, more toxic insecticides are used on cotton than on any other crop. A sustainable alternative is the certified organic cultivation of the "white gold". The farmers have only a chance to convert their production into a controlled organic cultivation of cotton if there is sufficient demand for organic cotton. Although laborious in the beginning, the conversion is worthwhile. WE want help be the sufficient demand for organic cotton.
What is up with ecolyte? Where did that come from? It looks way different from your other sandals Yes. Way different. Many people like the flip flop style sandal, people asked us for a flip flop style sandal. So, I thought. Why not, Nomadic state of mind needs a new project? We make excellent sandals, we can make a different kind of sandal, and we can make that sandal kick ass. So we interviewed, and tested other “those type” sandals out to see what I like and didn’t like. A fun project, we always need new projects- a curse of sorts. After deciding what we liked about a flop sandal and all of our buddy’s liked about the different ones they had, we went to work with some friends. First the material, ok that was obvious –lets pick out something that is quality (quality always has to come first) and comfortable, and keep in line with a rope technology. Hemp. Finding the most comfortable strap for the top of the foot. Tried a bunch, found one we liked. Then the foot bedding. Tried out many hemp and hemp mix fabrics. We found the 100% hemp canvas works the best. Then for the innards….soft, squishy but firm, arch support. Then the bottom non slick, something that grabs, Vibram… constructed here domestically. So, we have done some variations on the ecolyte now, using some pho furs made out of hemp, some recycled webbing. Having some fun wit sandal making. 2012. They year of the end of the Meyan calendar. After some surfing trips and time spent in the community in Nicargua, Chris got inspired again to create some new sandals, throughout this year you will see some new sandals and tshirts coming your way.
If you have any questions comments or ideas please email us. We welcome your feedback.
peace.love.good times.
