Cushion your feet with a foamy footbed as you walk with the new Scamp flip flip from . A collaboration between Cascade Designs and Freewaters, the Scamp is comfortable and springy whether you’re kicking up sand at your local beach, running errands, letting your feet breathe après bike ride, or cultivating every day casual. Therm-a-Rest’s signature ridged foam provides a surface that your feet and toes can grip. It’s flexible but not too flexible; it circulates air and wicks water.
But it’s not just the footbed that makes the Scamp comfortable. A reinforced webbing toe strap, and an arch-supporting midsole round out the package—all held together and kept low impact with non-toxic, water-based glue.
As you’re enjoying summer in your new flips you can feel good knowing that your purchase has done some good. A percentage of the purchase price of every pair of Scamps and all Freewaters products goes to humanitarian aid, currently well-building projects in Kenya. Just as Freewaters’ flips are low impact, so are its clean water projects. Freewaters uses local materials and human power to get the most bang for the buck. Volunteers pump up and down on a tripod-mounted drill stem using rope and pulley leverage to dig a hole 45 feet or deeper—until the drill hits an aquifer—without a shovel. They lower a wide pipe to support the hole, then build a concrete apron to seal and protect the well from ground-level contamination. When the pump assembly is finished, a village has a source of clean water. Learn more about Freewaters’ clean-water projects online. The Scamp is available April 2013, $36; .