We have a vision of making our tiny world a better place, but what does it mean exactly for you? And how does it benefit the community?
Of course our purpose is to create footwear made for Ultimate that you’ll enjoy wearing every time you step on a field (and I heard that’s quite often), and even there we started to make things differently, like when we made our cleats better then unisex.
Why are our cleats better than unisex?
Generally in the footwear industry, women cleats are just mens cleats made narrower (and pinker) because statistically women tend to have thinner feet than men.
As I was looking for a way to create a gender neutral pair of cleats, I came with the idea of including 2 pairs of insoles – a thinner and a thicker one – to adapt to wider and thinner feet.
This innovation received a lot of positive feedback from players whose feet didn’t fit the statistics and that could finally find a good fit outside of the industry standards.
But the product is not the only thing you care about right?
“What if you could have a bigger impact by choosing TOKAY?”
When it comes to gender there is no difference to be made.
These words should not be a statement, they should be an obvious reality. Unfortunately, the sports community is also impacted by our patriarchal society.
There is still a lot of work to be done before we reach gender equity. At TOKAY we have set a few rules that help us make sure we have an equal representation and benefits:
- Have more women than men represented in our communications: Instagram, emails, website and prints.
- When giving away cleats – for raffles, reviews, prizes or contests – always make sure a player of both genders receives a pair
- Maintain the gender balance with our female ambassadors
We also work in that sense with our partners and help high projects such as the European Ultimate Gender Equity Manual.
NO ADS
We’re not doing ads anymore outside of the Ultimate community. Which means that most of our marketing budget goes to Ultimate Frisbee organizations, projects or players.
I don’t know what you think about online ads, but I personally don’t like them. And thinking that someone paid to waste your time…
When I started TOKAY and tried to set up ads, I was recommended to spend up to ⅓ of my revenues on ads (⅓ of your money!). I didn’t really get the point of that until the pandemic hit and I stopped the project. When life came back, I realized I didn’t need to do ads because players just enjoyed the product so much they talked about it to their teammates, and that’s how we grew in 2021.
Our booth at Us Nationals 2022
Now that TOKAY has a real marketing budget, most of it goes to the Ultimate Frisbee community. So when you buy TOKAY, a significant part of your purchase goes to an organization or a project that will help someone play somewhere.
No fast fashion
“The 2 versions of TOKAY we’ve made”
Credit Guillaume Turcotte
Have you realized this year how fast the Halloween decorations were changed for Christmas stuff? Our product line lasts for years.
The fashion industry doesn’t have just a winter and summer season anymore but loads of events throughout the year in order to boost their marketing and rush us to buy more and more.
At TOKAY we don’t want to push anyone to overconsume. Our products line that last for years, and we do sales only when there’s a good reason, like the Discontinued JET right now.
We don’t do Black Friday, because although it looks like Black Friday is full of good deals, those discounts have to be compensated elsewhere. It means that if you buy a product outside of the sales season you’ll be paying for the discount someone else will get later. At TOKAY you get the right price all year long.
Looking for a good deal? We have a group offer, that lets you benefit of the savings we make on logistics for bulk orders.
Chanting our chant
Our community has its own vibes, it’s fun and cheerful, but it’s also committed to creating a better world. As a brand, we love to be part of that.
This year facing the terrible invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we created the “STOP WAR” for our Beach Socks and gave 100% of the revenues generated to “Médecins sans Frontière”, a french Association that helps refugees from the war.
TOKAY’s STOP WAR
Beach Socks design
Thanks to you, we could give back 835€
We have also created the “Projects we love” section to highlight projects that we think help build a better world.
Sharing the Spirit
“Happy GRUT at WUCC 2018”
Credit Ingeborg Kuijlaars
The very thing that makes our sport and our community unique is Spirit of the Game. Personally, being my own referee helped me understand how much I am responsible for my actions, and had an impact on my entire life. But how can it influence a business?
Self-referring helps us value honesty, a positive attitude and clear communication. At TOKAY we strive to apply these values to our customer service in order to make your experience with us as enjoyable as possible.
We’re a startup and make mistakes, we’ve had defective products and lost parcels, but we’re able to understand when we make a mistake, understand when this is our fault and find a fair resolution. If we’ve made mistakes, please let us know.
