With social consciousness stitched into its DNA, footwear brand Hari Mari has a history of doing good. Ever since co-founders Jeremy and Lila Stewart started the company in 2012, they’ve helped kids around the world through their Flops Fighting Cancer initiative.
This fall, the Dallas-based brand is using the launch of a new collection to shine a light on another cause they are passionate about: truth and redemption in the criminal justice system. Hari Mari has chosen exonerated Greg Kelley as the face of a campaign for their new men’s boot collection.
A former up-and-coming high-school athlete in the Austin area, Kelley spent seven years of combined prison and bond time after being wrongfully convicted of child sexual assault. He was exonerated and fully pardoned by the state in November 2019. Kelley is the subject of Showtime’s documentary series Outcry.
“Over the years, freedom was something that hung in the balance for me,” says Kelley in a press release for Hari Mari. “I’ve come to learn, when you’re dealt a bad hand in a specific season of life, freedom is the most important thing. It’s all I cared about when all else was stripped away.”