story by Catherine Pearson and Audrey Woodhams
Rarely in life do we get to simultaneously help the environment, foster creativity, and give someone a new start. Matt and Tabea Oppliger have found a way to do all three through their new social business in Tel Aviv, Israel, and they invite you to join them.
This fall, Matt and Tabea launched kitepride.com, a place to buy trendy, lightweight, durable bags made from repurposed kite-surfing sails. But the benefit goes beyond upcycling reclaimed materials into works of art. The employees in this social business are ex-victims of the sex industry making their way back into the workforce through this safe environment.
“I was born to make old and broken things beautiful,” one kite.pride employee told Tabea. “You have shown me how, because you have made me whole and beautiful again.”
“I was born to make old and broken things beautiful,” she said. “You have shown me how, because you have made me whole and beautiful again.”
which helps with the sourcing of material for kite.pride
products.
A popular sport throughout the Mediterranean, kite-surfers fly over the water with sails made of high quality, waterproof material. Kites sometimes tear in this extreme sport. Instead of trashing their broken sails, kite-surfers across the region now donate them to kite.pride.
Kite.pride employees are trained in every aspect of the business – from sourcing materials, design, manufacturing, and marketing. They give these sails a second wind, transforming them into one-of-a-kind quality accessories. Just as each kite has a past and a future, so does each employee.
“There’s a new sense of pride about what they do,” says Matt. “There’s a new sense of identity and pride behind creating a design that is completely unique, that is colorful, that is beautiful, that you’re proud of. Customers walk in and pay for it and they love it…there’s a completely new sense of pride about your life. That’s why it is called kite.pride.”
Buy kite.pride
Click here to read more about Matt and Tabea Oppliger and the beginning of Kite.pride 
