Tidals are made by New Yorkers. And like any New York state of mind, at TIDAL, we believe in doing things differently.
Meet us at Grand Central and you’ll be at our New Rochelle factory in 30 minutes. Heading to Chinatown for a tasty bite? Our creative team would love to join. We believe in building growth opportunities for all employees, sourcing our materials from other US-based small businesses and giving back to our community and planet.
who make Tidals. We believe in career employment paths, veteran
programs and most importantly, autonomy.
A Flip Flop Factory in
New York
The environmental impacts of onshoring our factory have been innumerable: from inventory reduction and lower carbon emissions to material and technological innovations. It has also meant we can make a place where employees matter. Every TIDAL employee can inhabit nearly any role in the production cycle and are also experts in their dedicated areas. Knowing the product, processes and equipment from the inside out ensures consistent quality and a sense of true ownership for our employees. It’s also allowed us to forge innovative partnerships with suppliers, developing relationships with small businesses such as Meramec, our material supplier. This very relationship is what gave way to our renewable sole.*
Our Veteran Program
At the factory, we practice a veteran immersion program—a hiring plan that encourages veterans and civilians to work side by side. 57% of TIDAL factory employees are veterans—the reason that’s not 100% or will never be is because we believe in inclusivity. A true veteran program immerses those that have served our country, not segmenting them. As a US-based brand with a factory, this program is just another way that we can support our community and our country.
The Voices of Our Factory
Meet the Makers
With a US-based center for production, we strive to give back to our planet and community in more ways than one. To do so, we maintain employment practices like fair and flexible hours, competitive wages, pristine working conditions as well as building career-focused employment paths for factory employees. With co-founders based on opposite sides of the country—the factory managers truly manage and take pride in daily operations. Autonomy, trust and ownership prevail at the factory. See the factory here.
A Traceable Supply Chain
Why? Because they are vital in making our flip flops the absolute
best product on the market.
Know Your Supply Chain
Where a product says it’s made is rarely that straightforward. Leather can be bought in Italy, stitched in Tunisia with a rubber sole from China. Bottom line, supply chains are messy and unfortunately, product origins are often used as marketing tools without giving you the full picture. The entirety of our flip flop is sourced right here which you can see in the map above. Our suppliers are true partners and we’re proud of the environmental impacts we’ve made as a team. Take Meramec, our material supplier, together we developed a renewable sole* and plan to release a biodegradable one in the future. This commitment to radical transparency serves as the cornerstone to being an ethical business.
Local Manufacturing,
Local Communities
Revitalizing manufacturing in the New Rochelle community is one of the things we’re most proud of. Not because we think our small company will change the world, but because we believe if more companies implement responsible practices like local manufacturing, regional economies can once again prosper and corporate ecological footprints will be reduced. Collectively, this makes real change. Restoring local businesses is critical for the following reasons: Money gets circulated back into local economies, companies are able to invest in employees' physical well-being and growth, and businesses naturally reduce waste from excess materials and unnecessary transportation. Onshoring our factory was a step towards fostering community. A rising tide lifts all boats.
industry veterans made plans for a seismic shift in footwear.
Family Footwear
On a return trip from China (a route Tim and Tommy Gibb knew all too well) the two brothers decided they were exhausted. After 25 years in footwear, to them—the writing was on the wall, the industry was on the verge of bottoming out. The model for footwear production was no longer viable and it definitely wasn’t responsible. On the twenty hour flight back, they got to work. The master plan: Make only one shoe, but make it better—and make it here in the U.S. Built around the notion of comfort (after all engineering shoes was kind of their thing) they broke ground on a local factory and made a commitment to transparency, a noble-yet-foreign concept to fashion and footwear’s dirty secret: supply chain.
world’s most comfortable flip flops for people who care as much
about substance as they do about style.
Canal Street Creatives
Our downtown office is filled with creative change makers, who are all passionate about developing beautiful (and f$%*# fun!!) flops, leaving the world a little better than they found it and not taking things too seriously. With diverse backgrounds, aesthetics and skill sets, our NYC-based team spearheads creative projects, new designs and planet-first initiatives—constantly pushing the relationship between fashion, science and things we think are pretty neat. From routine trips to our factory for product education to working beside emerging brands in the heart of the fashion community, we’re never short of new ideas or stories to tell.
TIDAL New York is B Corp Certified. Vetted and reviewed, we are proud to meet the highest standards of social and environmental impact.
