Oboz Footwear celebrates 2 million tree plantings with Trees for the Future

October 22, 2018

In celebration the Bozeman based footwear company will plant 2 trees for every pair sold for the months of November and December

Bozeman, Mont., (October 22, 2018) — In 2008, Oboz Footwear, the True to the Trail® outdoor footwear company headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, partnered with Trees for the Future to create the One More Tree program which plants a tree for every pair of Oboz Footwear sold.  As of today, the program has planted 2 million trees and in celebration of the milestone Oboz will plant two trees for every pair of Oboz Footwear sold starting November 1, 2018 and running through the end of the year.

“From the beginning, I wanted Oboz Footwear to help improve people’s lives,” said company founder John Connelly. “Partnering with Trees for the Future has allowed us to leverage our impact and see measurable results. Put simply, more trees is a good thing, and we couldn’t have achieved this without the support of our customers.”

By planting two million trees Oboz and Trees for the Future have helped reforest over 1,200 acres of land and sequester over 77,000 metric tons of carbon. Most of the trees were planted in grassroots projects in five countries of East and West Africa.

“We share Oboz Footwear’s belief in being True to the Trail, the ethical compass set on doing what we know to be best for people and our planet,” says John Leary, Trees for the Future’s Executive Director and author of the award-winning book One Shot: Trees as our last chance for survival. “Every Oboz purchase enables us to plant One More Tree – It could be a thorny tree planted in a living fence to protect a field from grazing animals, a fruit tree planted to provide oranges or mangoes for a family, or a fertilizer tree planted to bring life back to degraded soil.”

In the mountains of Cameroon and Kenya, the trees are protecting soils and providing livelihoods for hillside communities in the form of fruit, livestock feed, and natural fertilizers. In the arid lands of Senegal and Tanzania, fruit trees combined with vegetable gardens are enabling impoverished families to end their chronic hunger. The Forest Gardens Approach has proven to increase farmers income by 400% and more and more farmers are joining the planting programs.

Beyond the One More Tree program, Oboz Footwear has enacted numerous sustainability efforts throughout its business. Oboz purchases carbon offsets for its footwear shipments, office utility bill, and employee travel including their daily commute.  Oboz also powers its offices with clean wind energy from wind farms in Central Idaho and Washington, through the EPA Green Power Partnership.  Additionally, Oboz donates unsellable, but still trail-worthy shoes, through partnerships with Project Sole and local non-profits.

Those interested in helping Oboz Footwear and Trees for the Future plant more trees can purchase a pair at their local Oboz Footwear dealer or donate directly to the cause at https://donate.trees.org/fundraiser/1714415.

To learn more about the One More Tree program, Oboz award winning line of footwear, or find the retailer nearest you visit www.obozfootwear.com.

About Oboz Footwear

Founded in 2007, Oboz Footwear builds ‘True to the Trail®’ outdoor footwear inspired by the vast 18 million acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem surrounding the company’s Bozeman, Montana home. This rugged wilderness inspires Oboz to build shoes and boots that deliver unmatched fit, unrivaled feel and exceptional performance on any trail, anywhere. Oboz plants a tree for every pair of shoes sold. For more information, visit http://www.obozfootwear.com.

About Trees for the Future

Trees for the Future is an international development nonprofit that meets a triple bottom line by planting trees: poverty alleviation, hunger eradication, and healing the environment. Through the organization’s Forest Garden Approach the organization trains farmers to plant and manage Forest Gardens that sustainably feed families, raise incomes by 400 percent, and end deforestation. Trees for the Future receives donations to implement work in areas where the organization can have the greatest impact. Trees for the Future currently works across five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda. Since 1989, Trees for the Future has planted over 150 million trees. For more information on their programs, please visit: www.trees.org.