Affiliate Program Terms & Conditions

Through affiliate marketing, we are encouraging people with an online presence to communicate about the importance of barefoot shoes, their use in the everyday world, as well as how using carefully sourced materials is making a positive impact on the planet.

The affiliate, in return, earns a percentage of every single sale we ship through our site if the buyer uses his or her code when placing an order. We, the brand, are therefore establishing an agreement with them, the affiliates, to collaborate in a correct and long-lasting manner.

Below are the terms and conditions of any collaboration between the brand and the affiliate.

Contents: 

Commission Structure  
Commission Payment  
Withdrawals
Affiliate Code
Honest Promotions
Bonuses
Order Cancellation
Commission Code Explanation
Brand Loyalty
Unauthorized Use of Brand Means
Cookies Policy
Content Ownership
Giveaways
Compliance with Laws
Disputes and Modifications of the T&C
Termination Conditions

Commission Structure  

The commission is based on a Pay Per Sale model, with a unique discount code provided to each affiliate upon registration and approval in our system. The affiliate earns 5% of the total order placed by a customer, who at the same time receives a 10% discount when using the affiliate's unique code. In total, the commission or discount amounts to 15% of the product's total price on the website. These figuers are subject to change based on adding new programs in the future, or modifying the current ones.

Commission Payment  

The commission is paid after 30 days from the date when the order is confirmed and paid for. The brand approves the payments manually regardless of value. If an order gets cancelled for any reason, the commission will also be cancelled and subtracted from the total the affiliate can see in the dashboard. 

The affiliate is responsible for reporting and paying taxes on earned commissions according to local tax laws. If the currencies are other than the Romanian Leu for Romania or the Euro for the countries where this currency is used, the commission will be exchanged by the affiliate’s selected payment method. 

If payment delays occur due to system errors, bank issues, or other unforeseen circumstances, they will be dealt with on a per-case basis until the issue is resolved.

Withdrawals

The minimum withdrawal sum you can request is 200 Romanian Lei or 40 Euros. If this sum has been equalled or surpassed, the affiliate can request a withdrawal from the account and the brand will manually approve it.

Affiliate Code

The affiliate, once approved into the program, gets a unique code he or she can use to promote the brand on their platforms. Apart from the initial code, which is a randomly generated string of numbers and letters, the affiliate can request a simpler code, which will allow for much easier use from the final buyer on our side. 

For example, if the initial code is 2R4IRUH21A, the simpler code can be RUTH15. Both codes generate the same action, earning 5% to the affiliate and discounting 10% off to the final buyer, so it doesn’t matter which one is being used.

Honest Promotions

During the promotion phase of the collaboration, the brand ensures it keeps the affiliate informed about the latest products, upcoming sales, and any news and information that may be relevant to the affiliate in his or her effort to promote the brand. Meanwhile, if the affiliate engages in misleading or unethical marketing practices, their account will be terminated immediately, and commissions will be revoked. This includes false information, or any other type of illegal or biased wording or imagery in regards to promoting the brand and products. If the affiliate produces any damages to our brand or to any customer during the process, the responsability is solely of the affiliate.

Bonuses

If, as an affiliate, you can surpass 100 sales in a month, we will reduce the withdrawal period from 30 to 15 days as a thank-you bonus for your effort. Also, if the affiliate manages to earn more than 10.000 lei, or 2.000 Euros in total, we will promote the affiliate to a higher status, offering faster withdrawal times as well as larger commissions. These matters will be settled on a per-case basis, meaning when one of these criteria is met, the brand will email the affiliate with more details.

Order Cancellation

If an order is cancelled after being initially approved, and therefore paid for, so the final buyer decides to return the product, the brand will honour the request which will, in turn, lead to the cancellation of the commission for both the affiliate and the final buyer. All cancelled orders, even those cancelled after payment, will be processed in this way as per the local and European shipping laws and return policies.

Commission Code Explanation

The commission is made of two distinct parts: 

5% of the main price of the sold item goes to the affiliate, if and when he successfully completes a sale through his or her unique code. This happens when a buyer, influenced by the affiliate, uses the unique code in the final stage of placing an order, and then pays and never asks for a refund when the product reaches its destination.

10% of the main price of the sold item is subtracted which means the final buyer gets a 10% discount by adding the code to the purchase. In total, the brand spends 5% on the affiliate and 10% as a discount to the final buyer (from the main catalogue price) for a total of 15% off the main price.

Brand Loyalty

While affiliates may work with multiple brands, we recommend focusing on a select few to maintain authenticity and engagement with their audience. This could lead to option fatigue on the client’s part, which may imply low sales and interaction between the affiliate and his or her audience, and therefore low code usage and sales respectively.

Unauthorized Use of Brand Means

The affiliate must not impersonate the brand or use unauthorized content for the promotion of the products they want to sell with the code. 

The affiliate must never make any false claims or misleading content. 

The affiliate must never do any bidding on branded keywords (for Google Ads) unless otherwise established with the brand. 

Unauthorized content could mean fake testimonials, exaggerated claims about the product, and so on. 

The affiliate can’t promote the code via spam email or unauthorized use of brand assets. 

Every single collaboration that is identified as troubled by an unauthorized use of brand means for promoting the code will be terminated.

Cookies Policy

The brand doesn’t use cookies for running these affiliate codes. As the codes are unique and applicable at checkout, there is no need for the brand to track the behaviour of the final client until they place an order. Once the code has been used, the system recognises the action and simply sends the commission to the affiliate partner while applying the discount code to the order, no matter when or how many times this action takes place.

Content Ownership

During the collaboration, the affiliate may use his own content to promote the code, if the content complies with the terms and conditions. While the brand doesn’t own the content produced by the affiliate, the brand has the right to reuse the published content, in the public realm of social media, with the purpose of further promoting the work of the affiliate and therefore, indirectly, his or her code. The brand cannot edit or modify the affiliate’s content when reusing it. 

Should the affiliate use any marketing materials that are provided and protected by copyright and intelectual property laws, therefore owned by the brand, these remain in the possesion of the brand indefinitely and, on request, will be removed by the affiliate should the situation imply it. Materials may include logos, any photos or banners provided by the brand, texts or descriptions, videos or presentations and so on.

Giveaways

The affiliate may promote his or her code in whichever way they want, including by organising a giveaway with a product from the brand. The brand will provide the product to the affiliate in the form of a regular order, for which the affiliate will pay the price of the product and shipping. 

The brand is not responsible for any issues the giveaway might cause, as the brand is not the organiser of such promotional events. The entire responsibility of the giveaway, including organising, picking a winner, as well as shipping the won product to the respective winner, is on the affiliate only.

Compliance with Laws

Affiliates must follow FTC disclosure rules, GDPR and other marketing laws based on the laws of their own countries as well as international law. Also, affiliates must disclose their relationship with the brand in every promotion, which is often done by simply talking about the unique code in their posts.

Disputes and Modifications of the T&C

Should any dispute arise, it will be dealt with by mediation or arbitration for conflicts. The brand reserves the right to modify these current terms, with a notification period for affiliates.

Termination Conditions

The collaboration between the affiliate and the brand terminates if any of the aforementioned terms or conditions are broken.