Retailer Profile: GrassRoots

Our latest retail partner for One Mango Tree is Alaska's first fair trade store - GrassRoots.

GrassRoots is committed to being a positive examples of a successful fair trade business at work. They seek to inspire others to join the Fair Trade Movement and hope that as a result of GrassRoots' work, more Alaskan consumers and businesses will demand that ethical Fair Trade values are present in the marketplace.

We are proud to be a part of that mission. Check our the GrassRoots website.

Retailer Profile: Greater Good

GreaterGood is a network of websites that raise money for charitable causes, The Hunger Site being one of the most popular in the network. The Hunger Site was started ten years ago, to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need; the eradication of world hunger. Since its inception, The Hunger Site has provided more than 657 million cups of food.

When you shop on GreaterGood stores, a portion of the profits goes back to charities supporting the cause - so you do good twice, especially when you're buying fair trade products like One Mango Tree. Our product line is now available through all of the GreaterGood online stores:

The Hunger Site
The Literacy Site
The Breast Cancer Site
Global Girlfriend
The Child Health Site
The Rain Forest Site
Ecology Fund
The Animal Rescue Site

Check out one of our products and profile here.

We are thrilled to be working with Greater Good. CEO Tim Kunin spent a few days in Gulu in February, visiting our workshop and brainstorming on how to expand the partnership. They are contributing to One Mango Tree so that we can expand, providing funding to support the move to our new compound.

GreaterGood CEO, Tim Kunin, with One Mango Tree Director, Halle Butvin,
with Lucy and her family in Gulu

Stacey Edgar, founder of Global Girlfriend, will be visiting our shop in August, so look for a line of organic cotton knit in spring 2010 -made exclusively for Global Girlfriend!

Retailer Profile: Revive Fair Trade

I thought I couldn't possibly be happier about the article about One Mango Tree published in the March edition of Ohio Magazine. That is, until I heard from Lisa Dunn, owner of Revive Fair Trade - a shop at Legacy Village in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Revive is a member of Fair Trade Federation, and it grew out of Lisa's desire to promote the best companies and organizations offering fair trade products, who respect the producers, the planet, and the consumer as well. Lisa was interested in our products, and I'm happy to say that One Mango Tree is now a part of Revive's fabulous product line.

In January 2009, Ohio Magazine awarded Revive "Best Clothing with a Conscience."

Retailer Profile: Greener Country

Robert Meinke in front of his shop, Greener Country

Last year at the Green Festival in Washington, DC, I met Robert Meinke, a Long Islander who was then putting the finishing touches on his LEED-certified shopfront in Jericho, NY. The shop opened for business last month. Robert and his wife and co-proprietor, Maria Brandis, believe that the sooner green becomes mainstream, the better. That's why they started Greener Country. They want to make it easier to be "green" by bringing together a wide array of environmentally-sound products.

They sell all sorts of green products, from composting bins for your kitchen to all-natural bath products. They even carry fair trade gifts - now including One Mango Tree! You can buy the One Mango Tree product line at Greener Country's online store, or in their shop in NY.

Greater Goodness Gulu Gracious

I met Tim Kunin, CEO and co-founder of greatergood.com at the California Gift Show in Los Angeles. Tim was the shining star in an otherwise depressing four days in the basement of the LA Convention Center. After talking fair trade over Brazilian BBQ in LA, we've since walked the grounds of the NY Gift Show in New York City, shared a 9-hour bus ride from Kigali to Kampala, and battled tsetse flies on the journey from Murchison Falls to Kampala.

Greater Good is a network of websites (thehungersite.com is one of them) that raise money for various causes. There are a number of ways that they do this, but one of the most significant is through retail sales. The Greater Good team travels the world looking for unique fair trade crafts. They then purchase them wholesale and sell them in their online marketplace, giving a portion of the proceeds to the various causes they support.

Greater Good is now One Mango Tree's biggest customer, and Tim spent a couple of days in Gulu with the tailors, brainstorming some new product ideas and visiting potential sites for our production facility. He also got a taste of the Acholi culture with a dinner out at Lucy's place - complete with cassava, malakwang, millet bread and lots of beef and chicken stew.

Check out some of Greater Good's sites, and be on the lookout for One Mango Tree products - the ladies in Gulu are hard at work on their first order!

Retailer Profile: Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Sometime in 2007, while researching the history of wax-print fabrics in Africa, I came across the work of London-born Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare (artist, left). I was immediately drawn to his sculptures, both for the ironic use of wax-print, and the way in which his figures mocked other works from the colonial period (see dueling ladies below).

At the California Gift Show, I connected with the buyer from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art - from March 14 - June 21, 2009, they are hosting Yinka Shonibare, MBE: A Flying Machine for Every Man, Woman and Child and Other Astonishing Works. One Mango Tree market totes, neckties, originals and lunch bags are among the products you'll find in the museum store to complement the exhibition.

Just like Shonibare's work mocks colonial leadership in Africa, you can similarly mock "the man" by donning a One Mango Tree necktie at the office!


It's a great honor to be included as a part of this exhibition, and we're hoping to see a sustained One Mango Tree presence both at SBMA and other Shonibare exhibits around the world.