At BOGS, we are not inside cats. But we are curious and our curiosity usually takes us outdoors, where some of life’s most important lessons can be learned. So, when a Pacific Northwest nature school (and yes, the PNW has nature schools) approached us to outfit their students with boots, we were all over that. They knew that BOGS would keep their kids’ feet dry, warm and comfy all day long, no matter what lesson Mother Nature had for them that day. Their belief in the importance of outdoor education aligned perfectly with our own. As their founder put it, “Kids can’t bounce off the walls when there are no walls.”
This successful collaboration led to other successful collaborations and that’s when we decided to make our giving back program A Thing. A Serious Thing, with capital letters. Now in our third year, we’ve already given away about $400,000 in boots as well as grants for outdoor education non-profits. Nature schools, urban farming, habitat restoration, basically anything that gets kids outside to learn about, and from, Mother Nature. Especially kids who wouldn’t normally have the means or the proper gear to get out there and play and learn.