Some Things Simply Can’t Be Replaced

• Posted on 20 August 2026
• By LynAnne Wilton
• 0

Hi friends! I’m LynAnne, executive director here at HumanKind. Every so often, I wanted to share a few thoughts from behind the counter: what we’re seeing in the shop, what customers are loving, conversations we’re having, and the bigger stories behind fair trade and thoughtful shopping. Thanks for being part of this community with us.

Recently, we received a call from one of our fair trade suppliers in Spokane, Washington.

With fires threatening the area, they had a very real concern: their facility was filled with holiday inventory (beautiful, custom goods that had been made specifically for the season) and there was a possibility they could lose it all.

They reached out to their fair trade partners, including HumanKind, with a simple request: “If you placed a preorder of holiday goods, can we please ship that order to you now?”

Obviously we said yes.

Thankfully, the immediate fire threat has passed. But the experience left me thinking about something that is easy to forget when we’re surrounded by a world of two-day shipping and seemingly endless inventory.

These goods cannot simply be replaced.

Many of the items we carry at HumanKind are handmade in small batches by skilled artisans. They represent hours of work, generations of craft and, often, materials and techniques unique to the communities where they are made.  For example, artisans who knit hats and gloves work for nearly a full year to produce enough goods for one winter season.

If a warehouse full of these pieces were lost in August, there isn’t a factory somewhere that can turn on another production line and recreate thousands of them in time for the holidays.

And that is part of what makes them so special.

I’m incredibly grateful that, in this instance, we were able to say yes. We could receive our holiday order earlier than planned, bring those precious goods into our own facility, and give our supplier one less thing to worry about during an uncertain moment.

Fair trade is about so much more than the products on our shelves. It’s about relationships. It’s about recognizing that the businesses, makers and organizations throughout our supply chain are real people who experience unexpected challenges, and knowing that sometimes, supporting one another means being willing to adapt.

This was one of those moments.

As we begin preparing for the holiday season at HumanKind, I’ll be looking at those boxes a little differently this year. They’re filled with beautiful things, yes…but they’re also a reminder of how precious handmade goods truly are, and how grateful we are to play a small part in protecting and sharing them.

With gratitude,
LynAnne