Kenneth Cole & Inner Tube
Deux mains really aimed to surprise and inspire with the introduction of repurposed tire inner tube in our latest fashion accessories.
Innertube. Found in the middle of the dusty streets of Port Au Prince – the aftermath of frequent blown-out tires. What a beautiful chance for redemption. What a great way to provide new purpose.
Perhaps even more unlikely than the use of inner tube is how we source it. Once collected from the streets, the rubber is transported to a displacement camp at the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where former refugees turn this waste material into measured and cut parts.
Dust-covered heaps of innertube are saved from burning landfills and transformed into beautiful pieces of glossy soft rubber as they are washed, cut and polished by 34 former refugees who were deported from the Dominican Republic.
Imagine you are traveling across the country, in search of your next adventure. You have packed your Kenneth Cole Dopp Kit to store your toiletries, and your Overnight Clutch for your explorations around town. These accessories carry with them an unexpected story, and a great way to start conversation.
The rubber they are made from was once pulled from the middle of a Haitian highway, taken to a displacement camp, transformed into patterned pieces by former refugees, brought back to Port au Prince, and sewn and assembled by deux mains’ craftsmen and women. All this before they made their way into your suitcase, or the sink of your hotel room.
What you may not know as the owner of these products, is that the inner tube used is to produce them ensures that a former refugee can stay in safe secure housing for three weeks.
The choice you made to buy these original pieces are not only helping the environment, they are creating real change in vulnerable communities. It’s not only the inner tube that’s been offered the chance for a new beginning.
