Why Are Gaia Amore Products So Expensive?
Today Gaia Amore was posed with an inquiry by a customer:
"So the artisans would only make $11.97 from the bag that they hand crafted, while it’s being sold at $387.03 USD? Why are the bags sold so high?"
The question was posed on a $399.00 hand-carved, leather bag made by hand by artisans in Agra, India.
Empathy is an expensive business, ask any large non-profit. And the fashion industry has struggled with human rights violations for decades, only now facing severe push-back due to vested customer interest. Transparency into supply chains is a growing topic. Brands are constantly exposed for Greenwashing their impact claims by whistleblowers and customers doing their due diligence to find the truth.
Social impact brands are run by people who see opportunity to make real world changes by effectively re-writing the standard approach to transparency and sustainability by authenticating their claims. This does however take considerable capital and requires long term investments.
I am empathetic to the concern of any customer; they too, are after all suffering from inflation and rising costs of living. But while they are concerned with what we are doing and how little it may seem that we’re giving back to our artisans, I would ask the questions, do our patrons understand who our artisans are, where they live, their standards of living or what challenges they face? And what it means for a brand to be as transparent as @Gaia_Amore is working toward being?
It is simple for a westerner like me to simply say, $12 is nothing, why can’t brands pay more, they make SO MUCH MONEY!? I should know, before launching @Gaia_Amore, I was one of them.
The reality is simultaneously simpler and more complex. For an emerging brand like @Gaia_Amore, we simply don’t have the funds of fashion giants like H&M or Prada from which we can pull to make an impact which may seem justified. What we DO have, is the drive and determination, to build a brand whose DNA is rooted in social impact, preservation of culture and history and uniqueness of artisan skills. To build a brand that invests in the means to prove our authenticity. And a community of patrons and artisans who resonate personally with our core values and understand that sustainability means buying more expensive products but valuing them for the principles for which they stand.
These challenging questions are welcomed, it is through conversation that we’re able to convey our mission, express our empathy as a brand and help our patrons make progress in their lives. By patronising a New Luxury brand like @Gaia_Amore who is determined to change the way we think about buying products and understanding where and by whom our products are made.
https://gaia-amore.com/pages/about-hand-crafted-leather-products