What #BLM Means to Our Minority-Women Owned Brand

Ethical manufacturing practices and using sustainable raw materials are core brand pillars for ShoreBags. We pride ourselves with refusing to settle with subpar quality for our bags and being transparent about who we are morally and ethically is just as important as being transparent about our product raw materials.

We have been quietly watching, learning and most importantly pausing to reflect on what the continued stream of injustices and the subsequent highlight of these experiences means to us, our customers and the world we all live in.

Understanding that our individual experiences come from very personal places and should be intimately discussed, we also believe that the tenets of equality, justice and empathy are the basis of our idea of a sustainable, fair and just world.

As non-black minority women, the world we navigate in is very different from the one we are commenting on -- we understand and respect this difference. Painting all minorities' experiences with the same broad brush is not only insensitive but also dangerous to the overall progress of most vulnerable minorities. However related or unrelated all of this has felt, it has undoubtedly made us question whether we are doing enough. Are we deliberate in our choices to represent and support other minorities, especially the black community? Just as much attention as we pay to who we want representing our brand or 'influencing' our potential customers, are we also deliberate making sure we are not unintentionally excluding sections of representation? What we've realized is that it's not so much about what you do or what you say, it's also about recognizing what you don't do and don't say that can unintentionally affect how much (or little) you promote diversity and inclusion.

For ShoreBags, caring is about being deliberate in our actions and subsequently working to represent, hire and promote other minorities with conviction and intention. It is realizing that whether we are talking about our 50% rural women factory employment or intending for a more diverse representation of our brand, unless we do so with intention, it is likely to fall off our attention - and we intend to hold ourselves accountable.