It all started with blue flecks in the sand.
The idea for YY Nation was born on a beach in Maui, Hawai'i in 2018. YY Nation's founder, Jeremy, was visiting Maui from New Zealand with his family two decades after his last visit.
While on his favorite surf beach his 9 year old daughter noticed little blue flecks in the sand. On closer inspection, he realized the flecks were microplastic waste. He was devastated by the amount of plastic waste, including old shoes that were washed up and littering the beautiful pristine beaches on Islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He asked the question WHY is all this pollution happening, and WHY does it have to be this way?
"I want the beach to be pristine as it was when I first visited Maui 20 years earlier so my children and their children can enjoy nature as I have."
At that moment Jeremy decided to put his shoe-making talents towards creating shoes that would leave a good environmental footprint. This was the birth of YY NATION.
He told his story to a good mate Darryl who had visited the same beach with Jeremy to windsurf 20 years earlier. Since then, they have been on a journey to make the world's most sustainable shoes.