A Note From Our Founder

It's always been my intention to have a GREATS blog. Actually, we did have one for a period of time in 2014 and then again in 2016/2017. The blog was not just a place to show you who was wearing GREATS or what styles we had (although we did that) it was also a place for us to expose the GREATS community to stuff, people, places, ideas, music, art, film, and all the things that help enrich us as Humans. Some of those things GREATS customers would like, some they wouldn't and that's ok. It was about attempting to share our POV as a brand, who we are and what we think is important.

This is the first blog post on our new site, and as I sat to write this post, I couldn't think of a more meaningful message to launch our new blog with than to express where GREATS stands as a brand on the recent events and ongoing injustice and prejudice facing the black community. We support the Black Lives Matter movement and while GREATS has always expressed our position in support of inclusivity, anti-racism, and anti-discrimination, as a leader I feel that it is critical to communicate our commitment to making meaningful change for the future. 

I came across the below passage and while I don’t know who wrote it, I found that these words accurately represent the many ways in which we must continue to support and participate in the Black Lives Matter movement.   

Black Lives Matter.

BLM is meant to right the injustice that has been systemically created to oppress black humans for centuries. In sharing our stance, I am hopeful of making sure everyone knows where we stand and that it may influence our customers, partners and community to support the movement. 

We are going to keep this blog alive moving forward with the hopes of sharing our POV and engaging with our community. Hopefully it will encourage conversations and dialogue about things well beyond sneakers and footwear, although there will be plenty of that as well.  

-Ryan Babenzien