Wow it’s been a whirlwind 10 days. 50% funded for our Sat Nam babe crowdfunding initiative with almost three weeks still to go in our campaign. I’m so thankful for all of the pre-sale orders (can’t wait to see all of your kiddos in our tees and pants!!) and outright contributions that are truly so generous.
I’m going to rewind a few years ago to when I was working full time and in grad school (and yes, still dealing with the post traumatic stress of surviving that insane schedule!) I took a class called “sustainability in supply chains” and it literally blew my mind. Yup mind completely blown. A little over a month before the class started for the summer, the Rana Plaza fire happened in Bangladesh, killing more than 1100 garment workers. The complex was structurally unsound and the owners of the building knew this. Many global fashion brands that we all know very well were tied to this tragedy.
Almost four years later, as I launch Sat Nam babe, this story continues to resonate with me and inspires me to simply do better. I understand after taking this class that if an item is “a deal” more times than not, some piece of the supply chain (aka a worker in Bangladesh making $68 a month) is being squeezed. It’s those people who are still the most marginalized who are being taken advantage of, so these global brands can maximize profit margins and shareholder value. These brands may boast about how they are “giving back”, showing employees planting gardens and spending time at soup kitchens, but in reality, when you peel back the layers to a fundamental level, are these companies really doing good?
For me, doing good means understanding my supply chain as much as I can and doing as much as I can from day one of our company’s inception to feel good about our choices. I know the areas that I would like to consciously improve upon down the road (i.e. sourcing suppliers in the US for our harem pants, but they are in very good hands in a great factory in India for the time being) but it will come with time. And we will also find a very tangible, impactful way to support kids around mindfulness, yoga and its amazing benefits from a young age. I have some ideas but it’s too early to share. We are SO proud as part of our crowdfunding campaign, to be supporting Rosie’s Kitchen in South Africa. I got to spend some time with Rosie when I was there and this woman is on the ground, doing the work and feeding many kids each day. We will be making a contribution to her selfless work once our crowdfunding campaign ends March 31.
One thing that I’m really excited about is applying for B Corp certification, which is basically a stamp of approval (and written into my company’s legal docs) that says that our main goal is to not always maximize shareholder value, that the social good piece is very important to us as well. The certification involves taking a very lengthy assessment and asks everything from how many women owned companies are we supporting to our carbon footprint. We’ll be getting the ball rolling on this certification later this year once this one-woman show (aka me!) has some time to come up for air!
One comment in particular stuck with me months ago, when I was in the early stages of forming what Sat Nam babe would look like. I was talking to a lot of parents (mainly moms) and this one mom shared with me: “I would never be your customer. My kids grow way too fast to spend a lot of money on clothes.”
I get it – I get kids grow fast and the cheaper option may be the winner 9 out of 10 times right now. But I’m trying to change that mindset. Perhaps consuming less and being a more conscious consumer can work, even for purchasing kids’ clothes. There are amazing companies out there, such as Eileen Fisher and Patagonia, who are doing their supply chain the right way. I believe it’s Patagonia that actually encourages its consumers to buy less, yet their business is booming. I love that! How inspiring.
Exciting week coming up, as I will likely be placing a big fabric order for our yoga leggings, so our printer can get started printing those cute bug party and blue chevron prints on some pants! And we are creating our hangtags. And approving our harem pants final fit, picking up patterns, meeting with another yoga studio for retail opps, locking in our cut and sew vendor here in NY and so much more that will keep me running from Brooklyn to Harlem to the Bronx and everywhere in between.
I can’t thank you enough for your support thus far. PLEASE PLEASE keep those pre-sale orders coming in. We still have a way to go to reach our goal in less than 3 weeks even though we’ve been rocking it so far. And contributing on our ifundwomen page is VERY easy. Please if you have any questions, just ask me!
https://ifundwomen.com/projects/satnambabe
Here’s to a great week!
xoxo
Jen
Jennifer Coulombe 