Everyday Goods & Tools Still Made by Craftsmen in the Developing World.

At the beginning of this year, my sweet, future sister-in-law visited Colombia for the first time. In planning
our few days together, she mentioned that she wanted to go shopping. Of course, what do we do? We take her to buy shoes in San Francisco, a shoe-making suburb of Bucaramanga. It is one of Colombia’s shoe-making hubs, with generations of people working on the craft, in store settings as well as from their homes.

My own grandfather had a small shoe factory, Calzado Super. He raised 11 children on the craft and even employed some of his brothers, whose families were also supported by the craft. My father worked with him and handmade two shoes per day (It’s no wonder he loves shoes and passed on the love to us; my husband cringes every time I bring a new pair home. Can you relate?).

Micro-enterprises sustaining communities; it seems like a thing of the past. Well, not quite…Despite the fact that
open-trade has impacted the numbers of micro-enterprise makers throughout the world, there are some very passionate, highly-skilled makers that have continued to craft and sell their amazing products. And even though their margins have deteriorated and many live on only $4 to $6 per day ($120 – $180 per month) due to supply chain pressures to keep prices low, they still manage to employ people and sustain families. The makers in the picture above, work form the back of their storefront (without air-conditioning, hence shirtless). They were working on an order for a Costa-Rican client and were beaming with excitement.

We want more happy, maker faces, beaming with joy because they are finding new markets that help to better
sustain themselves, their employees and communities.

Why Us, Why Now?

My husband and I are both deeply connected to this maker world. We feel a tremendous respect for people who have
kept their skill and work alive, despite competing with poor-quality, low-priced products dumped in their markets.

We strongly believe it is time to bring these products back to our markets. Products that are truly well-made,
crafted with passion, and that sustain communities. That is the mission of our business, KRIndustries.co, a for-profit, social impact startup.

Our model is to bring amazing, high-quality, everyday goods and tools directly from the makers to online retail, allowing us to give access and opportunity to skilled-makers in the developing world. Our goal is to improve their
living standards, make a decent profit for ourselves and bring back great quality products to our customers (without breaking the bank). Something that is completely possible with online retail and by consciously profiting from shared prosperity.

We are launching our first online store in November, shearstore.com. Through this store we are bringing amazing quality hairdressing shears,
handmade by master-craftsmen in Pakistan, from premium Japanese stainless steel. Please share our website with your hairdressers so they may join our customer list to receive our exclusive launch information.