A Culture of Giving Back
A school for disadvantaged and disabled children sits on the course of the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, one of the most popular ultramarathons in the world. Itâs called the Ethembeni School, and itâs been a source of inspiration for countless Comrades runners, Bert among them.
So, when Bert and Tanya initially sought a philanthropic project, the Ethembeni School made sense. Only a third of the schoolâs funding is covered by the local government, and most of the remaining monies come from scholarship.
As a way to give back, Balega created the Lesedi Project. How it works: a portion of every single sock sold has funded twelve annual scholarships through 2017, a wheelchair friendly school bus and even a therapy play ground with a swimming pool for the kids.
When Bert and Tanya moved to the US back in the early 2000s, though, they decided the Lesedi project wasnât enough. âWe realized that for every dollar we send away, we needed to keep a dollar here for local initiatives,â says Tanya. âAnd so thatâs what we did.â
Among those are Grit & Grace (a program in partnership with the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, which works to remove environmental causes of breast cancer by developing education around healthy lifestyles), Veterans in Need (a program that helps to build homes for US troops), Back on My Feet (a program to help rejuvenate homeless people and reintegrate them into society through running programs) … and many more.
âFor us, itâs small steps in the bigger scheme of things,â says Tanya. âBut, just know that if you support Balega, with every single pair you buy a little bit goes back to the community. And every little bit helps. As Nelson Mandela says, it really does take a village.â
Community and Quality
Balega's signature performance socks have a high needle count and gender-specific fit. Whatâs more, no two styles are alike. Each is designed with performance, comfort and functionality in mind. Every sock has a contoured fit that wonât move while you run (prevents blisters), a deep heel pocket, no seams (again for blister control) and ventilation panels for moisture wicking.
But to ensure all of this is perfect, Balega guarantees that every single pair of socks is hand inspected in either their South African factory or their US factory, which is located in Hickory, NC. Then each is marked with a sticker that includes both the face and name of the employee who inspected it, (You can even write to them!)
âAside from offering (in our opinion), a product of the highest quality, thoughtful design and true performance, we would like to think that people see us as having a genuine passion for what we do, for having integrity and a measure of humility,â says Pictor.
SHOP BALEGA NOW.
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