OK, Im posting this again with some PICS!! Since Im still trying to get more of my FB friends to take 10 seconds to vote for Ecuadoras, I thought maybe Id give those of you who dont know what it is, a little bit of the story. Check out our webpage for more: ecuadoras So… when my godson Alex went to Ecuador for his junior year of high school, I promised to come down and take him surfing - and I did! While on our surf trip in Montanita Ecuador, we bought 3 woven baseball hats from a man on the street. When we got home, everywhere we went, people would comment on our hats, saying how cool they were. This inspired me to find out who weaves these hats, and how we could get some up here to the states. Later that year, I bought Alex a plane ticket to Ecuador and gave him enough money to buy a bunch of hats. We agreed that he would find the weavers, meet them, and see if we could work with them to bring these beauties up to the states. Alex immediately became friends with Felix and Diana, two of our partners, who were the originators of the woven baseball cap. While he was there for 3 weeks, the weavers were able to make 75 hats that Alex brought back. These original hats were inconsistent, had no sizing, and were a bit rough, but they were so novel and fun that we were excited! Alex went to India the for the next 14 months, and when he returned we gathered up all of the hats we had, and he brought them to The Oregon Country Faire. He sold all of them in less than 2 days! On his return, we decided to send Alex back to Ecuador to deepen our relationship with the weavers and bring back more hats. What has happened over the next 3 years, has been the development of a beautiful friendship between ourselves and the weaving community. Our primary goal has been to provide enough work to the weavers that they are able to make a comfortable living by weaving our hats. Weaving is their tradition and what they love to do. By providing an avenue for their art, we are supporting their dream of making a living through weaving, and for the last 6 months, weve been able to keep our friends busy! We envision deepening our ties with these wonderful people and their land on the southern coast of Ecuador. Everything we make goes back into the business, and it has been a labor of love. We hope you can give us a few seconds to vote for us to be eligible for Chases MIssion Main Street grant program. Thanks everyone! The link is right below! https://missionmainstreetgrants/business/detail/46107
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 20:14:49 +0000