Love the planet you walk on

Simply put, we’re shoes made better. Made from recycled and bio-based materials, our first silhouette looks like work and wears like leisure. Our sustainable shoe bottoms feature a sugarcane based foam and our uppers are constructed using recycled leather. Combined with our other environmental efforts, these eco-friendly materials are what drive Ponto to be innovators among ethical shoe companies.

Growing up in Southern California, the ocean holds a special place in our story. While Pontus is a Greek deity of the sea, Ponto is also named after our childhood favorite beach in Carlsbad, CA. We donate a portion of proceeds from each purchase to protecting our oceans through our partnership with the Changing Tides Foundation.

We invite you to join us and walk towards a more harmonious relationship with yourself and our planet.

Our Values

Conscious Consumerism

With every step you take, we hope you feel a little more grounded, balanced, and connected to the things you care about most. With more choices and options than ever before, what we choose to buy really is a reflection of our own values and identity. Where do the things we buy come from? Who made them? How were they produced? And at what cost? Part of the issue with sustainability is that there are so many different interpretations and “greenwashing” is becoming prevalent as many brands attempt to inflate their claims to get more clicks. We prefer to be open, transparent, and are taking the most holistic approach to sustainable footwear as we can. We welcome feedback and will continue to strive to produce the highest quality and least impactful products possible.

Circular Economy / Circular Production

The best thing we can do to help the planet is to simply consume less. This is at the heart of our company - enabling you to do more with less. We designed our shoe to be a hybrid product for your life on the go. The Pacific is able to be worn to work, the bar, a wedding, pretty much anywhere. The “Fast Fashion” trend that has become all too popular in the industry is simply wasteful. We believe in owning fewer high-quality products that can do more. Our shoes are minimalist in design, classy, elegant, and ridiculously comfortable.

Less is more

We understand that part of keeping our planet and oceans clean is reducing waste and creating a circular economy. This is why we partner with Soles4Souls, the largest not-for-profit shoe and apparel social enterprise in the US, to not only help uplift others, but also keep our used and unsellable inventory out of landfills. When you are ready to part ways with your Pontos, for every pair that you send to a regional Soles4Souls distribution center, we’ll give you a $40 credit to be applied to your next pair of Pontos. Those ethical shoes will then empower an aspiring entrepreneur in a developing nation to re-purpose the shoes to be resold and kickstart someone’s entrepreneurial micro-enterprise. Send us an email at support@pontofootwear.com to learn more about this program and to take part yourself.

Conservation

Ponto donates 1% of sales to protecting our oceans. We partnered with 1% For the Planet and The Changing Tides Foundation to help promote gender equity, social justice, and ocean health as well as to remind us of the potential of our personal impact on the world.

Carbon Neutral

Ponto is proud to be totally carbon neutral for all of our shipping. It's an unfortunate reality that there are unavoidable associated environmental costs with producing and delivering anything. We are taking steps towards our ultimate goal of becoming Zero Carbon. We’ve partnered with Flexport’s Carbon Offset Program to minimize all shipping-related emissions and purchase carbon offsets for what we can’t avoid. This not only includes ocean freight shipping to get our product to our warehouse, but we also calculate and include all emissions from each delivery to you, the customer. You can rest assured and breathe easy knowing that receiving your pair of Ponto’s doesn’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, at every stage in their journey.