OBRA's number one mission is to deliver best-in-class utilitarian comfort vulcanized footwear.
The final OBRA product is the natural manifestation of this goal but, as co-founders, we think that there's more to it than the OBRA sneakers' quality. Dave and I believe that a company's business practices are just as important as product when striving for excellence.
And so, OBRA's mission statement also includes a commitment to advocate social justice at large and advance equity within local creative industries.
Built into the OBRA business plan is a commitment to redistribute a share of OBRA revenues to local organizations focused on advancing equity with the arts, education and creative industries. To start, for each pair of shoe sold at full price, OBRA donates $10.00 to SCOPE OF WORK.
SCOPE OF WORK is talent development agency for underrepresented young people that aims to establish equity in the creative industry, It was founded in 2016 by Geneva White and Eda Levenson, two artists and educators of color with over a decade-long career in youth development and arts-education sector.
SOW’s vision is to build a more inclusive creative ecosystem—specifically supporting young creatives of color between the ages of 17 and 24, and hailing from all five boroughs of NYC.
This is important work and we invite you to find out more about SOW here, as well as support their effort and roster of young talent via @sow.nyc.