Fair Indigo To Donate 100% Of Store Sales On World Fair Trade Day

(Fair Indigo, Middleton, WI) –

To honor World Fair Trade Day on Saturday May 12th and support its theme “Kids Need Fair Trade”, fair trade clothing pioneer Fair Indigo will donate all sales that day in its Madison, Wisconsin flagship store [map]to education: half to local Madison-area Parent-Teacher organizations and half to the Fair Indigo Foundation providing educational opportunities to children in the developing world.

World Fair Trade Day, held each year on the second Saturday of May, is organized by the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) to promote fair trade practices around the world. This year’s theme “Kids Need Fair Trade” highlights the positive impact fair trade has on children in developing countries which frequently suffer from low pay, poor working conditions and limited educational opportunities that trap them in a cycle of poverty. Fair trade practices break that cycle and rather than tearing people down help to lift them up.

Consumption of fair trade products is rapidly growing and has hit an all-time high. According to Transfair USA, retail sales of Fair Trade Certified coffee grew from $50 million in 2000 to over $500 million in 2005 and show no signs of slowing. Fair Trade Certified tea, cocoa and many tropical fruits are now also available in stores throughout the United States.

Fair Indigo, a new fair trade clothing brand, pioneered fair trade practices in the mainstream apparel industry with the launch of its catalog, website and first retail store last fall. According to a survey conducted by Greenfield Online, Inc., 86% of Americans want their clothing made by workers who were paid fairly and treated with respect, while 65% felt they were at a point in their lives where they wanted their purchases to “give back” to society. People are backing up their talk with their spending: in Fair Indigo’s first month in existence, it had received orders for its fair trade clothing and accessories from customers in all 50 states. Bill Bass, Fair Indigo’s CEO, says “People are becoming more conscious of how their purchases affect the world, both socially and environmentally. Fair Indigo is giving people the ability to help change the world through their clothing purchases by providing stylish clothes that were made fairly by workers who earned a living wage. I spend a lot of time in the factories and co-ops; it makes a big difference in the lives of these workers when customers choose to support fair trade with their purchases.”

To celebrate World Fair Trade Day on Saturday May 12th and support its theme “Kids Need Fair Trade”, Fair Indigo will donate all sales that day in its Madison, Wisconsin flagship store to education. Half of every sale will go to the local Madison-area Parent-Teacher organization of the customer’s choice and half will go to the Fair Indigo Foundation providing educational opportunities to children in the developing world. As Bass noted, “As the nation’s first mainstream fair trade apparel retailer, we felt it important to make a significant commitment to World Fair Trade Day and its theme. So we decided, rather than follow most companies and donate a portion of sales, we would donate every penny that comes in the door to support education and fair trade – both here in our own community as well as the international communities where we make our clothing”.

About the Survey
Fair Indigo partnered with Greenfield, Inc., to explore consumers' opinions about the fair treatment of workers. The survey was conducted online in June 2006 by 624 women ages 25-54. The margin of error for this study is 3%.

About Fair Indigo™
Based in Middleton, Wisconsin, Fair Indigo is a new fair trade clothing and accessories brand for women and men. Started by a small group of industry insiders with the goal of changing the way the apparel industry works, Fair Indigo offers Style with a Conscience™ by paying a fair and meaningful wage to the people who weave every fiber and sew every seam of its collection. The concept is known as fair trade and it means putting people first. Visit fairindigo.com and see how good you can look while you help change the world.

Posted by Rosana Ellman at May 7, 2007 4:05 PM
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