Beyond the Boutique: The Real Impact of Fair Trade at HumanKind

• Posted on 3 May 2026
• 0

When you walk into HumanKind for the first time, you might think that we are just a cute boutique filled with unique, colorful, global finds that make you happy. While that is absolutely not wrong, that first impression barely scratches the surface of what HumanKind is all about.

HumanKind is deep into something called fair trade. We are a verified member of the Fair Trade Federation which means that our organization has been vetted according to all Nine Principles of Fair Trade. We believe that in our global economy, trade needs to happen responsibly and with care for both people and the planet. Fair trade is a model for what responsible trade looks like.

Fair trade eliminates corporate greed.

When it comes to pricing goods, fair trade enterprises start with the cost of materials and fair wages for the producers. It is on this foundation that the final retail prices are established, which creates a pricing structure that is based on actual product value. Unfortunately, this is revolutionary in our modern economy, where most businesses primarily place the profits as top priority and pricing is set to gain maximum profit. Fair trade turns this structure upside-down (or shall we say right-side-up?) and creates pricing that is both fair for the producer and for the consumer.

Fair trade treats workers like people, not like machines. 

In our world that is increasingly reliant on machines, we seem to want humans to produce tirelessly like machines do. The invention of the assembly line may have been revolutionary to human productivity, but taken to an extreme, it can be harmful to human bodies that were not designed to do repetitive work day after day. In conventional garment factories, for example, one worker may spend 40+ hours per week doing the repetitive motion of sewing on a sleeve. This may be very efficient, but the work wears on the human body. As an alternative, many fair trade fashion companies enable workers to create one whole garment from start to finish, which gives them varied tasks as well as a sense of ownership of the item they created. Fair trade creates work environments that support the humans doing the actual labor of creating a product.

Fair trade puts environmental sustainability into practice.  

Big companies love to talk about environmental sustainability, fair trade puts it into practice. Of course all production and trade has some environmental impact, but we do everything we can to reduce the impact and the fair trade community has come up with all sorts of unique ideas. Zotter Chocolates transports cacao across the Atlantic Ocean by a wind-powered schooner. Pebble provides fair employment for women making toys in Bangladesh so that their families have sustainable employment and don’t need to resort to overfishing the local waterways. YEWO partners with a women’s reforestation co-op in Northern Malawi to plant a tree for every item of jewelry they sell. For a movement that is rooted in caring for people around the world with great economic needs through fair trade, we know that these are the people who are suffering the most at the hands of climate change. Taking care of the world’s vulnerable populations means taking care of our environment.

At HumanKind, we believe fair trade enterprises are stronger together through the Fair Trade Federation. Our manager, LynAnne, has taken a leadership role by serving on the board of directors for the FTF so we can help guide the future of this movement. Last month our SLO community was thrilled to host the FTF board of directors (pictured above) for their annual planning retreat. It was so encouraging to meet other fair trade leaders who are proving that trade can be a force for good. Together we are the future of responsible trade.