College Entrepreneurs Launch Fair Wage Social Venture
Fort Myers, FL (PRWEB) July 29, 2013 -- The entrepreneurs, Viktor Mak, Colgate University Class of 2015 and Matthew Kordonowy, Washington and Lee University Class of 2015 started http://www.vernclothing.com after spending their summer in Guatemala volunteering at a weaving cooperative and taking Spanish lessons.
“We were touched by the story of Mayan weavers. After the Guatemalan civil war took the lives of many indigenous men, women turned to weaving beautiful and elaborate textiles to support their families. Our mission is to help these women reach American customers so they can stay off the dangerous streets of Guatemala” said Vern Clothing Co-Founder Matthew Kordonowy.
The pair is reaching their mission through an online clothing store that sells items that the women weave. Vern Clothing officially launched in June with a handful unique handwoven items from indigenous groups in the Guatemalan highlands. Matthew and Viktor are currently designing products that will appeal to American shoppers. The two recently launched a crowdfunding campaign at http://igg.me/at/vernclothing with the mission of raising enough money to add ties, bow ties, and belts to their collection.
Vern Clothing works exclusively with weaving cooperatives, organized groups of women weavers that formed after the Guatemalan civil war. The weavers elect a president each year and sell their items to the cooperative for a pre-negotiated price per item. The cooperative then sells the items into the market. This arrangement ensures that women with no formal education have the ability to earn fair wages for their work.
“It is very important to us that we have personal relationships with the weavers that we work with,” explained Co-Founder Viktor Mak. “Vern Clothing is as much a social venture as it is a business. We make sure that our weavers are being compensated fairly for their work.”
Apart from ensuring fair wages for the weavers, Vern Clothing gives 10% of their profits back to the communities that they work with. The 10% donation goes to an education fund for the children of the cooperative members. The fund allows over 250 children to receive a formal education. Because of a lack of infrastructure in Guatemala, children that don’t have money to pay for schooling are turned away.
To browse Vern Clothing’s collection of handwoven clothing items and accessories, visit http://www.vernclothing.com.
To contribute to Vern Clothing’s crowdfunding campaign to raise money for ties, bow ties, and belts, visit http://igg.me/at/vernclothing.
Matthew Kordonowy, Vern Clothing, http://www.vernclothing.com, +1 (239) 728-1937, [email protected]
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