PURA VIDA BRACELETS
156 that such intentions are translated into reality . “ I ’ ve been spearheading our overall sustainability initiative . It started with social compliance auditing of the factories of our vendors and manufacturing partners , then getting them up to a baseline ; ensuring that fair wages are being extended to individuals at the ground level , that these facilities are at code , and that there ’ s a safe working environment overall .”
The reliance on artisanal products does present its own problems . “ Everybody has this idea of what artisan means , but in essence anything that ’ s being made with two hands is artisanal . The biggest thing is focusing on transparency within all of our artisans and vendors . We work with them with regards to capacity planning and what our demands are going to be . That helps them to scale up as the business continues to grow .” In many other ways , however , dealing with artisans is not so different from conventional mass production . “ Just like regular manufacturing , communication and transparency are the two biggest
MARCH 2020