based in: vilnius, lithuania founded by: darija ileviciute-zaveckiene & karolis zaveckas, 2017 products: socks
when darija and karolis decided to start a business, the idea was to create exclusive socks for everyday life with a positive impact on the environment. after a lot of research and partnering with ‘plastic bank’, they discovered yarns made from recycled plastic bottles and therefore succeeded in creating a truly sustainable product. now one pair of ūkai socks funds the reduction of 51 plastic bottles! how does that work? for each pair of socks, plastic bank cleans 50 plastic bottles from the ocean. one additional bottle is recycled and used as material for the socks, together with upcycled cotton, organic cotton, polyamide, and elastane. so far their brand has been able to reuse 55’590 plastic bottles. the whole production happens in their homeland of lithuania under ethical conditions. their name ‘ūkai’ means ‘mist’ or ‘fog’, in their native language, and describes a natural phenomenon that paints the environment in grey and toned down color shades. this color palette and abstract shapes inspired by nature are basically what ‘ūkai’ is and represents - an homage to the earth, love for our planet, and the strong belief that by making conscious everyday steps we can make our planet cleaner and our future brighter.
