Panties for Good

Last week, my friend Ryan Schuette and his fiancé Tara Smith launched Cherie Amie, a lingerie company which reminded me of the value of fair trade companies in forging a relationship-based economy. When we focus on local business solely, we forget that our interconnected world is forging a global community. While we are creating better relationships with our neighbors we must also look to how we can create better partnerships with our international community. After all, many of us rely on goods that are not available in our growing region and I believe we are strengthened when we share concern and goods outside of our national boundaries.

Ryan and Tara’s company is a perfect example of a business that leverages relationships here and abroad to change lives. Tara Smith was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon who is now using Cherie Amie to empower women and fight poverty in the communities she served. Every purchase creates jobs for women with fair wages and all of the profits go to support small loans for women entrepreneurs worldwide.

Cherie Amie uses the Good Returns model, pioneered by Soap Hope, which uses existing market forces to build capital for social ventures. All of the profits from the lingerie sales will be invested to fund microloans for social ventures around the world. Many social ventures have trouble finding start-up funds and this model uses Cherie Amie’s success to build more successful social entrepreneurs, who in turn could use the Good Returns model to fund even more businesses and so on. Their impact grows exponentially which each new loan.

Cherie Amie’s story also shows the power of their domestic community. This venture was funded by an Indiegogo campaign that used crowd funding to raise over $15,000 to start their business. Last week’s launch is not just the result of Ryan and Tara’s hard work and vision but of thousands of backers who have invested in their good work.

It has not been an easy road to the launch. Last month, Tara Smith’s house caught on fire right after she had returned to Cameroon with the first batch of products. Half of their stock was wiped out in the process. Yet once again their community rallied to donate to keep their company going, and so, on Human Rights Day, Cherie Amie launched their label and opened their online store.

Cherie Amie is a great example of a company built by community which in turn helps further invest in making communities better around the globe. They are a great example of the Fezziwig Revolution and the commitment to build businesses that value cheer over cash. While you are looking for a gift for that special someone this holiday season you can be sure that their lingerie will create cheer from its inspection, creation, and purchase to unwrapping it, putting it on, and taking it off.