Frode Grønvold

Frode Grønvold is a passionate outdoorsman, dropout and know it all turned serial entrepreneur. Frode has 20 years experience in the sportswear and fashion industry.

Nina Granerød

Nina Granerød is a Creative Director and designer with many years experience in the fashion industry. Nina holds a BA with Hons in design and fashion marketing from Central Saint Martins.

Tor Marius Engen

Tor Marius Engen is a former professional athlete and surfer. Tor Marius has 20 years experience in the shoe industry. His agencies have represented some of the most valuable shoe brands of the last decades.

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As surfers we see our most treasured places flooded with plastic. That’s why we created Sleepers – to offer a better option to the worlds most sold footwear.

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The dream(ing) Team

Back in 2001, during an extended surf trip to the then civil war-torn east coast of Sri Lanka: surf buddies (turned footwear and fashion entrepreneur’s) Tor Marius and Frode came across flip flops in natural rubber and filled their board bags with gifts for friends and family during a factory visit.

16 years later, during an après surf, al fresco dinner at Tor Marius ́ surf shack in the Canary Islands, Frode’s wife and business partner Nina asked why no one is doing the flip flops she wants. She is a Central St Martins womenswear design graduate and just wanted a consciously made pair with a contemporary design aesthetic that she can wear with a dress in the city or on the beach. Having recently sold a Womenswear label they founded years earlier, Nina and Frode were on a world tour, with their two kids and were devastated to find some of their most treasured places turned into plastic dumps. We knew flip flops to be the world’s highest selling footwear with the vast majority being made of synthetic rubber from bi products of the petroleum industry.

Over two thirds of the microplastic in the ocean comes from synthetic fibers and rubber.

Tor Marius was ahead of the curve when during the turn of the century made it his mission to introduce sustainable footwear to the Nordics. Before the night was over, we had a plan to come up with a better option.

On a Mission for People and the Planet

After years of researching everything from algae based to recycled compounds, we found the better option was natural rubber.

After all we bagged close to two decades of product testing since we filled our board bags in 2001. Synthetic rubber was developed due to high demand and rising prices of natural rubber. Aware of the social injustice the plantation workers in the rubber industry were facing we knew we had to make sure we could improve the conditions of the workers. It took us three years to set up the supply chain.

To minimize our impact we managed to set everything up in Sri Lanka where the rubber is drained from living rubber trees in a careful and sustainable process in FSC managed plantations.

Together with our partner Fair Rubber Association, we ensure a fair wage and working conditions for the worke

Join the Team

Are you passionate about change and believe life is better in flip flops?Join our decentralized team of highly autonomous people. We believe working from where we want to be, doing what we love, makes us better.

Drop us a line and tell us how you can make us improve.

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