In It for Good: How Creating Cute Shoes Also Creates Fair Jobs
After returning home from a trip to Guatemala where she witnessed extreme poverty, Bethany Tran couldn’t get the great people she’d met out of her mind. So she dreamed up a business model that created jobs for skilled Guatemalan workers and textile weavers manufacturing super cute shoes for women.
When helping others is the inspiration for starting a business, the motivation to succeed is huge. Not only are these entrepreneurs in business for themselves, they're also In It for Good. In this series we'll meet social entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders and global thinkers who are working to make the world a better place.
Name: Bethany Tran
Business: The Root Collective, handmade shoes & accessories
Launched: 2013
Location: Guatemala & U.S.
What they do: Employ and fairly pay artisans in Guatemala who badly need jobs to manufacture handmade shoes and accessories for sale in the U.S. Bethany recalls, “Visiting the slum communities helped me understand that poverty is extremely culturally complicated. If you live in the slum, you have to lie about your address to get a job because nobody will hire you.”
The impact they’re making: The head shoemaker, Otto, is a former gang member who turned his life around and now employs others who want to leave behind the gang life of poverty-driven violence. The textiles used in the shoes are hand woven by a woman-owned collective nearby, providing these artisans with a sustainable income, as well.
Why they do it: Because they believe their customers -- women -- are incredibly powerful. Women are responsible for 85% of household spending and therefore hold the key to using their money to create change in the world. Bethany says, “Every dollar that you spend is casting a vote for the kind of world that you want to live in.”
Read Bethany’s full story: Building a Business with a Cause: Bethany Tran on Navigating Hashtags and Finding Followers
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