Few brands have backdrops like Gandys. Harrowing and heart-warming, theirs is a story of perseverance, entrepreneurship and charity. Read on to find out more…
It is possible to draw a straight line from the founding of Gandys in 2012 to the bittersweet childhoods of Rob and Paul Forkan.
Liberated from school by their adventurous parents, the pair – along with their younger siblings – took to travelling the world. While other children sat examinations and shuddered in the corners of damp playgrounds, the Forkans lived a vibrant life of volunteering, exploring and learning in every corner of the globe.
An upbringing that shaped the way they saw the world, this childhood was a magical one.
But in 2004, the idyll ended abruptly. The enormous Boxing Day tsunami that took 200,000+ lives struck the shores of Indonesia. Among the victims: Rob and Paul’s parents Kevin and Sandra.
Now orphans, the two brothers struggled to aclimatise to such an earth-shattering loss.
With that undying thirst for adventure instilled in them still, Rob and Paul launched Gandys in 2012. Its initiative? To assist the plight of other orphans through the sale of that travellers’ favourite – the flip flop. With their collection of casual cool footwear, Rob and Paaul plough 10% of their profits back into the cause of others orphaned by the terrible tsunami of 2004.
And in 2014, Rob and Paul’s success with Gandys led them to the amazing opening of an Orphans for Orphans children’s home in Sri Lanka.
Since then, the pair have visited Buckingham Palace (in their flip flops, of course) and instilled that same sense of adventure and kindness in others as their parents did in them.
Few labels have such a thoroughly sad origin, yet few too have such a magical initiative to drive them.
