Ocean Sole – from flip flop to art

Ocean Sole takes the worlds most worn shoe, the flip flop and turns it into art. In 2018 80 artisans have turned 750 thousand flip flop’s into masterful artworks big and small. Ranging from little keychain’s all the way up to life size giraffe and lion.

Ocean Sole is Kenya based and originated from an idea to clean up beaches that were heavily polluted with plastics and flip flop’s. By turning these flip flop’s into art waste has been given value. From humble small origins and just a small team of artisans Ocean Sole has now grown to employ 90 Kenyans.

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Dutch distributer: Nic&Mic

The Dutch company Nic&Mic has been their partner through this adventure and helped grow the company substantially these past years. Together they are looking at a future of making colorful art but also company logos and more practical usable items.

Nic&Mic, an abbreviation of Nicholas and Michael Ninaber of Eijben, started distributing Ocean Sole works in the Benelux in 2014. Michael discovered the beautiful Ocean Sole statues during an internship at the Dutch embassy in Kenya. Later it turned out that they are not only beautiful, colorful statues but also that the story behind it is inspiring.

Nicholas: “Working with the Ocean Sole safari statues is a true pleasure. Everyone who sees them is excited about them! The real ‘kick’ comes when the viewer is told what the statues are made of. When we tell the story behind Ocean Sole they are all ears. The enthusiasm and creativity I get from trading these statues is a great reward in itself. It is very nice to be able to contribute to a cleaner world in such a way.”

www.nicmic.nl