Soles by Soldiers: Sandal company hires vets
NEW ROCHELLE - A New Rochelle sandal company is stepping up efforts to help veterans find work after returning from the battlefield.
Timmy and Tommy Gibb, co-founders of Tidal New York, say the flip-flop manufacturer is starting a new line to benefit veterans that is headquartered in New Rochelle.
"There's nothing more American than a flip-flop," Tommy Gibb says.
The brothers also say that newly returning veterans will comprise around half of the staff at their new New Rochelle headquarters.
Adam Avenia is one of those veterans. In 2012, he was deployed for 10 months in Afghanistan with the Army Military Police during Operation Enduring Freedom.
"We put our lives on hold to go over and fight, then we come home, not knowing if we have a job," Avenia says.
The Gibb brothers, whose father is also in the footwear business, say that when they interviewed Avenia for a job shortly after his return, they became determined to help him and other returning veterans return to American life.
"He was somebody who had seen things you don't wish upon anybody to have to see," says Timmy Gibb, who added that he was dismayed at how returning veterans were being treated. "Talking to his girlfriend and his mom...they say, 'This place gave us him back.' And that's the best part of this whole thing."
Gibb says the brothers recruited a team of veterans and focused their company around brotherhood and pride.
Tidal New York will launch this spring at Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdale's, the Gibbs say.
NEW ROCHELLE - A New Rochelle sandal company is stepping up efforts to help veterans find work after returning from the battlefield.
Timmy and Tommy Gibb, co-founders of Tidal New York, say the flip-flop manufacturer is starting a new line to benefit veterans that is headquartered in New Rochelle.
"There's nothing more American than a flip-flop," Tommy Gibb says.
The brothers also say that newly returning veterans will comprise around half of the staff at their new New Rochelle headquarters.
Adam Avenia is one of those veterans. In 2012, he was deployed for 10 months in Afghanistan with the Army Military Police during Operation Enduring Freedom.
"We put our lives on hold to go over and fight, then we come home, not knowing if we have a job," Avenia says.
The Gibb brothers, whose father is also in the footwear business, say that when they interviewed Avenia for a job shortly after his return, they became determined to help him and other returning veterans return to American life.
"He was somebody who had seen things you don't wish upon anybody to have to see," says Timmy Gibb, who added that he was dismayed at how returning veterans were being treated. "Talking to his girlfriend and his mom...they say, 'This place gave us him back.' And that's the best part of this whole thing."
Gibb says the brothers recruited a team of veterans and focused their company around brotherhood and pride.
Tidal New York will launch this spring at Nordstrom, Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdale's, the Gibbs say.
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