Keen is a family-owned, values-led maker of hybrid footwear. Even though they love making shoes (and they’re really good at it), Keen would tell you that they really exist to make a difference: to make the outside and trades accessible to all and to clean up the planet while they’re at it. 

Giving shoes to help people in need—whether to survivors of a crisis or natural disaster or to volunteers lending a hand on the ground—is one of the most immediate ways Keen is able to step in and take action. When KEEN was just starting out in 2004, they donated their entire advertising budget of $1 million to help victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean and to other causes. This disaster relief effort set in motion their culture of giving back and taking action to help those in need. Since then, Keen has generously donated shoes and other items to meet the needs of those displaced by 2018 Chico, California fire, the 2008 Sichuan, China earthquake, the 2011 Tohoku, Japan earthquake, and more. While Keen doesn’t keep a running tally of the number of shoes they’ve donated, it’s a lot. 

Keen isn’t only involved in disaster relief. The company also finds creative ways to help protect public lands. In the summer of 2015, they refurbished a big yellow RV and drove it across the country, collecting 50,000 signatures to protect five public lands with national monument designations. Today, they refurbish phone booths and place call scripts in them to help people easily connect with their representatives to make their voices heard. 

Keen is also proud of the fact that they are working toward systematically eliminating PFCs from their products, that they source environmentally preferred leather from tanneries that are certified by the Leather Working Group, and that they have eliminated 7,000 kilograms of pesticides from going into the environment every year by switching to natural odor control technology. 

Keen spent almost a full year constructing their Portland HQ, painstakingly repurposing almost everything in the building, which prevented 90% of the materials from going to the landfill. Everywhere you look in their offices, you will see repurposed items: Railroad ties dug from the cement out front, beams, conduit, piping, siding all removed from their original location and made to work elsewhere in the building. There are spools from utility cables and giant tires as tables, and old bleachers for seating. 

Keen is proud to offer an extremely generous and exclusive discount of 50% to active duty service members and a 30% discount to veterans. You can access the discount by clicking here.