Given Goods: Part 1

Dynamic, innovative businesses are usually led by powerful, passionate people. This couldn't be truer for Cammy of Given Goods, who we got to catch up with a few weeks ago.

We were initially attracted to Given Goods for their incredible, hand-picked selection of fashion, beauty, gift, and home products. Now that we know more about the thought behind it, it's harder not to resist the site. It aims to create educated consumers, especially with a new feature (that we're obsessed with)- the Good Graph. The graph helps you figure out how much of your shopping is doing good, what it's doing good for, and where in the world the magic is all happening.

But enough of our gushing- we'll let Cammy do the talking on behalf of Given Goods.

the business side of things
"In the beginning, we were essentially calling and begging all the companies knew and ever heard of. But it's changed quite a bit since. We want to know, do they have the right price and quality? Does their look and feel match what we want? Because we do have such a big social component, we are trying to redefine the way we look at social giving, but we do have a lowest optimal bar- give back... Once you get beyond that barrier, it's all about whether or not we love the product."

how to orient fashion towards good
"One sort of overarching way to think about it is to have a collaborate brain. I don't think this sort of alarmist, Zara, what are you doing? H&M, why are you doing that? attitude is productive at all. The fast fashion industry is unbelievably huge right now and unfortunately what that means is that there is a certain confluence of price and timing and production has to be a certain way. So then what is a way for us to go out and say Great, we see the goals of what you're trying to do each day, so what is it that we can do to aid in that? How can we take a group of people who have been doing the same thing for such a long time and unfortunately making a lot of money doing it and say to them, Let's look at the issues on our side and look at the potential issues on your side? Where can we come together in the middle of the mark?... It's all so integrated in my mind."

some hope
"There's a growing base of consumers who really care about this stuff and who genuinely believe in and ask for these sort of products. I don't think the group is large enough yet to be moving the ticker in that direction quite yet, but it's coming. I really genuinely believe that if that group is mobilized, they will start going to these companies and saying we've got to be looking at these issues. It's been so interesting to me to see these large corporations say, "Hey guys, we get it. We're listening." So I do think there's something to be said about the duality of the problem- that consumers need to address and be aware of and make this a part of their day, but also looking to corporations and saying listen, this is harmful for you too... There's that age old "Everyone talks, but nobody walks", and sometimes this is really obvious in some of these efforts... It starts from an educated consumer. The more that people can have the desire to hear the story of a product or to know about where it came from and why or why they should care about it. It's really interesting to see how much love people have for it."

what Given Goods is doing
"It's absolutely necessary that people understand that there are products they will love that they will buy and are beautifully made and have a great story behind them that they will want for themselves and give to others, but doesn't have to look this way that, unfortunately, I think the sort of traditional fair trade or sustainable design wear is known to have."

do you own all the products?

"Oh my god, yes. I'd like to. Unfortunately, I can't always afford all of them… occasionally, we will model them though. That's a perk."

Given Goods is certainly not your traditional fair-trade shopping site. It's beautiful designs are sure to blow you away. Try it for yourself -- use this 'GGxmere' discount code during your checkout, and receive a 15% discount on your purchase. Make sure you tell us what you think (after you fall in love).

extra hopeful for the future,

The Meré