Ipanema Gisele Bundchen.

I'm thrilled I managed to get myself a pair of Ipanema Gisele Bundchen Sandal from Royal Sporting House yesterday evening at a discounted price. The sandal is light, comfy & waterproof! What's best is that the company behind the brand is environmental-friendly & believes in ethical employment principles. I'm glad I made this meaningful purchase.



Some background info:

Grendene, the Brazilian company behind Ipanema is one of the world’s largest footwear producers. Its 22,000 employees produced 176 million pairs of shoes in 2006. They also own the world’s largest mould-making factory and they are one of Brazil’s largest export companies. They export their brands, IPANEMA, GRENDHA and RIDER to 85 countries. Inspite of their size, they are a family-owned company. They are incredibly proud of their environmentally-friendly company and ethical employment principles. Workers at their factories, all of whom are over sixteen years of age, enjoy dental and medical facilities on site, family planning education, transportation and recreational facilities. Grendene’s work with Brazilian supermodel Gisele and the Amazonian Indians is establishing identification with themes of sustainability and corporate responsibility.

Gisele Bündchen is the highest paid model in the world but she is not as well known as some of the other supermodels as she is very selective with the products that she endorses. She has always been passionate about environmental issues and she has been involved with Amazon charities for several years. Gisele has described this project as ‘A symbol of Brazilian cultural and biological diversity’. Very few supermodels would spend 5 days in the Amazon making a promotion film; she is a real ambassador for Brazil.