Fair Trade Culture

July 31st, 2007 by Dominic

The seed of what ultimately has become Fair Trade Culture was planted passing through Istanbul, Turkey in May of 2004.

I made friends with a local man that introduced me to his town…including a warehouse that belonged to a carpet wholesaler friend of his. I wasn’t shopping at that time…so the merchant was quite forthcoming about his business. A carpet that would cost several thousand dollars in America, he would purchase for approximately 1/6 of that price further more about 1/6 of that went back to the person that made the product. The amount that the weaver received for a rug would also have to cover the materials.

If you were to buy a $6000 handmade carpet here about $100-$200 would go back to the person that made it.

I kept thinking (for years) that there had to be a better way. A way to connect the carpet weaver directly to the carpet buyer (or at least remove layers of middle men). Making the line between producer and consumer as direct as possible, while educating all parties involved about life in different parts of the world and the connections between all of us.

This idea marinated until just over a year ago. My friend Amanda and I were sitting back one day struggling with questions that everyone struggles with:

What are we going to do with our lives?

How do we weave our passions into daily life?

How do we live the lives we want to live?

Amanda said she’d love to be able to travel and help those in less fortunate parts of the world. I told her of my Istanbul idea/experience…it was at that moment lightning struck, all the pieces fit together. Neither one of us alone had all the necessary skills to bring this seed of an idea to life, but combined it’s a perfect match.

The concept is simple. Take the path less traveled. Explore the back roads of foreign lands around the world. Find really cool, unique stuff. Meet and build relationships with the artists. Bring it back and offer it directly to you.

It’s about freedom for the artist to get a fair wage for their product and build better life.
It’s about freedom for you to purchase products with a global, social conscience.
…and yes…
It’s about freedom for us to live our passions and passionately live.

It’s a big world out there…we hope to bring it to you.

It’s about freedom,
Dominic

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Posted: 7:56 pm Tuesday, July 31st, 2007
Categories: fair trade culture, world commerce, fair trade.

One Response to “ Trade Winds: It’s about freedom.”

orelia Says:
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:43 am
hey. just got lauras email and i applaud what y’all are doing. having lived in the developing world for a year and seen what works and what really doesn’t, this is a way to really help people get connected fairly to the gigantic market that they otherwise have no access to. i have a lot of friends in burkina and mali, some PCVs some not who are working with artists and i’d love to work on something together before i go back to africa. i’ll be in madison soon… should get in monday night. hope we can chat. the website is beautiful! cheers and love,
O