↓ Philosophy
Our Message: FEEL FREE. REST HARD.
Message makes slip-on footwear to support you before and after peak activity–to reduce fatigue, speed up recovery, and move freely with you throughout the day. We’re committed to creating a more responsible shoe industry by prioritizing multigenerational manufacturing partners, short supply chains, renewable materials, and very kind people.
↓ Design
A hug you can wear.
We engineer slip-on footwear for a never-felt-before feeling like a hug for your feet – improving circulation and reducing soreness, swelling and fatigue. Pull your Messages on like socks for a secure, strapped-in fit.
Our lightweight, subtly contoured barecork™ footbed makes space for the fifth metatarsal – the sweet spot between orthopedic and barefoot. Cork is a carbon negative + sweat-, water-, impact-, odor-resistant, antimicrobial and antifungal material perfect for post-workout.
The compression hugflex™ strap improves circulation reducing soreness, swelling and fatigue. Pull them on like socks and shimmy your toes to the top for a secure, strapped-in fit.
A custom-molded natural rubber with natural flex points for how your foot moves.
From the cutting of our signature barecork™ footbed to the pulling of our hugflex™ strap for the perfect amount of support, our slides are made by expert hands in small batches by master craftspeople in Portugal, making each one subtly and beautifully different.
↓ Planet
Worship the ground you walk on.
We launched our brand with renewable and upcycled materials, a short supply chain, minimal packaging and limited releases, and we’re always working toward a higher standard of responsible manufacturing. This is our beginning.
Our slides are made without animal products, focusing on renewable, recycled, and recyclable materials.
Our cork is made from unused and upcycled wine cork. It is harvested in responsibly stewarded forests of Portugal from cork oak trees every 9 years, a process that does not harm the tree in any way since the bark naturally regenerates. Cork is a carbon-negative material.
We’ve chosen family-owned factories that sit within 40 minutes of one another in Portugal with the intention that our supply chain is as concise and low-impact as possible. Less shipping = smaller impact.
↓ People
Meet Team Message
Message is a product of thoughtful partnership, from our in-house team across the U.S. to the family-owned factories we work with in Portugal. We’re a small group of curious, constantly evolving individuals with decades of experience.
We produce our footwear with a group of special 2nd and 3rd generation family-owned factories in Portugal. Located outside Porto all within a 40 minute drive from one another, our supply chain is short and sweet. Their talent and experience allow us to deliver a level of comfort, stability, and finesse never felt before.
To design the best slip-on footwear ever made, we brought together experts from two sides of the footwear world that don’t interact too often—performance footwear developers and fashion industry veterans—and found that we could all rally around Message.
We are a seasoned, creative team, located in cities from coast to coast and united by a common purpose: ease for your body, and self-love for your soul. We’re eager explorers, prolific readers, detail-obsessed, and open-minded learners committed to making things better.
