Small companies and projects - We miss you!

Small companies and projects - We miss you!

 

Small companies and projects - Not Essential but Important & Loved - We miss you!

 

Buy local, sustainable, share, repair.

 

Be proud of what you bought and wear and give it a story and bring it alive! Make it a part of you!

 

Wasties* - We miss you not because we need a special item but to stay curious and search for things we didn't think about before.

 

*Wastebusters and Salvation Army are two local shops, recycling shops in Wanaka, where I bought all my stuff on the picture and which is basically a full clothing to wear and I got heaps of praise like "Nice hat", which were often a good conversation starter.

 

I think little, personal shops or companies like these, are struggling the most at the moment. These shops and projects are actually also the things, which make a town/city different and interesting instead of the big brands you can find everywhere in the world.

 

That's what I normally like in towns to explore these little shops and meet the interesting people behind it, because they can tell a story about their shop and life with it.

 

When I travelled in the US almost every town looked the same. In Santa Cruz there are a lot of Entrepreneurs. A light shop, a Nut Creation shop, Cookie Cruz, Adventure Sports Journal, Santa Cruz Bicycles and many more. I loved Santa Cruz not only for the landscape and the spirit but also to explore but I think it goes hand in hand.

 

There are a few in Wanaka and New Zealand I visited or like to visit like Wastebusters, Salvation Army, Pure Ice Cream, Soul Food, Keke, Paradiso Cinema, 1964 magazine, Good Rotations and many more.

 

In New Zealand there are some shops I bought products from or heard from which sound interesting and I would like to visit SaveMart, Ti Ora tea, Hansells shakes, I Love baking cookies, Regal Salmon, The Collective yoghurt, The Brothers Green, Ceres Organics, beeswax wraps, lily Bee Wrap, Chantal organics, Whittakers Chocolate, Bennetto Natural Foods, Living Nature, Yank, Icebreaker, Picture clothing, Linda McCartney's and probably many more companies I have not heard of yet but would love to explore and maybe even work for, for a day to meet the people behind.

 

There are many more good companies in the world and I was able to work with or to read/ heard about like the schnurstracks Kletterpark, Plant for the Planet, Forest Finance and many more I'm happy for suggestions and would be very happy to hear about more to visit.

 

The most known company is probably Patagonia with Yvon Chouinard who is still a role model for many companies and has quite an influence on me without even buying one of their products.

 

"The hardest thing is to simplify your life, it's so easy to make it complicated. (Yvon Chouinard )

 

"To do good, you've actually to do something." (Yvon Chouinard )

 

"Patagonia will never be completely socially responsible. It will never make a totally sustainable non-damaging product. But it is committed to try. (Yvon Chouinard )."

 

The book: "Let your people go surfing!", is a great economic book and advertisements like "Don't buy this jacket" are just great to lead us in the direction of sustainability. Repair old clothes and spending 1% for the planet and organizations are just great to do for a company and should be mandatory. We take, We give!

 

Furthermore, they producing amazing documentaries not for profit but to show projects and our Nature, showing the sad reality but also show hope like in 180° South, Damnation, Blue Heart, The Fisherman's son, Unbroken Ground, Fishpeople, Artifishial, Takayna, Treeline and Nevertown -Revolution starts from the bottom
(https://www.youtube.com/user/patagoniavideo)

 

Small companies make such a change for moments and for small people and it would be so sad to miss them after. They make the world more colourful and hopeful, because in the end we all want to live like that and in harmony in/with and on this beautiful word and this crisis gives us the chance to think about it again and finally act. It's our choice as customers what we want and should buy and we know it if we trust our feelings.

 

Buy local and responsible for you and all of us and Mother Earth!