While in Nashville, Hersh and Justo co-directed a video piece, “The Path,” created by P5 and produced by Mankind Films. This trailer garnered more than 50K YouTube views, and created anticipation for the short film, launching soon. The May 15 event was powerful stuff, but the big news would come in July 2017, as Ccilu CEO Wilson Hsu, P5, and Soles4Souls announced a more expansive partnership, with Ccilu committing 100,000 pairs of Ccilus as the sponsor of Souls4Soles’ Travel Program. Ccilu and S4S will travel to a number of countries – including Haiti, Honduras and Tanzania – and visit communities across Europe and Asia, in the coming months. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Ccilu joined forces with Soles4Souls on an emergency mission to Houston, TX, where its product was distributed to those rebuilding their lives after this enormously destructive storm.
When Ccilu International Founder & CEO Wilson Hsu approached Propeller 5 about bringing his brand to the US, he made it very clear that this was about more than selling his product in a new market. Wilson wanted to achieve a cultural crossover. He was committed to establishing a full-time presence in California. He also wanted to establish a new giving program in partnership with a charitable organization. For Ccilu USA, Propeller 5 created and developed #StepForwardGiveBack, a multi-platform giving campaign, spanning domestic and international initiatives and including numerous charitable organizations such as Soles4Souls, 210 Foundation and ShoesThatFit.
In 2016, Propeller5 began cultivating a relationship between Ccilu USA and Soles4Souls, the preeminent charity in the footwear industry. Led by the indefatigable Buddy Teaster, Soles4Souls has given out 30 million pairs of shoes to people in need – many of them children – in 127 countries. Through numerous conversations and exchanges about what might be the right project on which to partner, together we settled on Soles4Summer, a distribution in Soles4Souls’ hometown of Nashville. On May 15, 2017, the project came to fruition, with 10,000 pairs of new Ccilu shoes distributed to kids across 41 schools in the Metro Nashville school district. Warner Music Nashville also participated, donating $10,000 to the program. P5’s Hersh Rephun and Justo Diaz were fortunate it enough to be on hand, helping to size and fit many of the kids. “When you sit across from these kids and talk with them and see the excitement and appreciation in their eyes,” Hersh recalls, “you realize what a privilege it is to be engaged in giving.”
The story of Ccilu’s larger commitment to Soles4Souls has been covered in Vamp and other publications.