Fair Indigo - a fair trade company who is changing the world
Posted by Ryan Mon, 12 Nov 2007 02:53:00 GMT
At a conference a couple of weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Bill Bass, the CEO of Fair Indigo, speak about his fair trade clothing company. (I even got to meet him afterward.) Fair Trade is social movement that is still in its infancy, but beginning to gain popularity. The essence of fair trade is to pay a fair price to the people who make goods, and to respect the environmental and social situations in their communities.Bill spoke about how difficult it is to find clothing suppliers who will participate. Tongue in cheek, he explained about calling up factories in 3rd-world countries and saying "hello, we would like to pay you more for your clothes, so that you can pay your employees more" and having the person at the other end just hang up, thinking it's some kind of Nigerian money-laundering scam!
There are 2 wonderful videos showing the folks who make some of Fair Indigo's products. These are people who not only live in impoverished areas, but are themselves disadvantaged physically. They refer to Fair Indigo's customers as "Anonymous Angels" for supporting their life-changing occupations. Watch the videos -- they are quite moving.
Hats off to you, Bill, and your entire team. You are truly making a difference in this world for a lot of people.
Thanks so much for the info on Fair Trade clothing. My son and I happen to volunteer at a non-profit, fair trade store front here in Austin on South Congress, Ten Thousand Villages. There are currently 160 storefronts like this one in the U.S. and Canada and they also have a website: www.tenthousandvillages.org and the local site is www.villagesofaustin.com. They primarily sell home furniture and accent pieces along with alot of gift products, especially at this time of year!