I briefly mentioned in What I'm wearing, that I am loving my Sseko Sandals, so I thought I'd put a little more about that here. I had first seen these sandals last summer at a boutique near my old job. I thought they looked interesting and fun, so I went home and did some research. I loved them even more and put them on my wishlist for some day.
Sseko sandals are made in Uganda by women who are trying to earn money for college. I recently listened to the creator, Liz, on The Happy Hour podcast (it was really neat, I highly recommend listening to it if you're interested in learning more!) and she talked about going to Uganda and meeting with these girls while they were in high school and hearing that none of them would be able to afford college. She said as an American her first thought was to develop some sort of non-profit--a sponsorship program where people could sponsor women to send them to school. But then a new vision came to her where these women are able to create something and work to earn their tuition. They started with these ribbon sandals and now have other shoes and accessories that are created and then sold. She talked about it being a for profit company, so there is not a catchy tagline of "For every pair you buy x amount of money goes to Uganda," it's just a business that has a lot of players involved and has grown into a way for women to not only earn money for school but also for women who have aged out of the education system to earn a living.
I loved the story behind it. And I loved the idea of being able to have one pair of shoes and multiple ribbons so I could basically have a bunch of pairs of shoes. So I used some money I received for my birthday to buy my first pair. I actually went ahead and signed up for their Sandal Club which meant I bought a pair of sandals and a ribbon, and then for the next 6 months I got a coupon code each month for a new {Free/already paid for} ribbon. So now that summer is here I actually have 9 different ribbons.
I'll be honest that it took me some time to get the hang of how to tie them to be comfortable. I loved all of the different ties that have on their website, but the first few I tried did not sit well on my feet. So for the first several months that I wore them, I basically wore my tan spaghetti strap ribbons with the basic tie and I didn't experiment too much. But recently, I heard about their 10 ways 10 days campaign where they encourage you to try a different tie every day for 10 days and post about it on social media. For each post you're entered to win a gift card to their website and if you do all 10 days you get a free pair of ribbons. So since I have a little time on my hands this summer, I decided to jump in. And I'm so glad I did! I'm sure my instagram friends grew tired of posts of my feet and shoes every day, but I had fun trying out new ties and using several different ribbons. And I've found a few ties that I will definitely be using a lot more of.
1. Navy and White Ribbons in the Ankle Flip Flop Tie 2. Gold Shimmer Ribbons in the Knotty Tie 3. Gold Shimmer Ribbons in a made up tie 4. Black Ribbons in the Classic Woven Tie 5. White Spaghetti Strap Ribbons in the Classic Tie 6. Navy and White Ribbons in the Be Weave in Me Tie 7. Teal Ribbons in the Bohannon's Best Tie 8. Teal Ribbons in the Classic Tie 9. Betty Chiffon Ribbons in the Rosey Toesy Tie (without a rose) 10. Black Ribbons in a twisted made up tie
I definitely loved the Chiffon Ribbons which were my newest ones and I hadn't worn them yet. And my favorite tie was the Knotty Tie and the Rosey Toesy.
It was fun getting to try out new ways of wearing my sandals. And I look forward to experimenting with them more throughout the summer!
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