Supporting our country and our local manufacturers and companies is something that is very important.  I personally love to buy locally from urban crafters.  It is important for us  to support those in our country for many reasons.  The first being that it is great for our economy.  I am one of those people who is always searching out companies like that, trying to bring them to light and buy from them whenever I can.  I have a local favorite right now that makes some really amazing products.

Michigan Urban Crafters

David Bowman is an amazing urban crafter here in Michigan; he creates some amazing artwork out of license plates.  I love art and I also love how he found a unique fun and artistic way to recycle materials that would other way go to waste.  You can check him out at Design Turnpike, his awesome small business that now offers great high quality prints of his unique artwork.  It is small businesses like this that help this country to thrive.

I admit that when I first moved out on my own these things weren’t a concern for me.  I was your typical young adult who was too wrapped up in her head to really think things through.  I didn’t realize the impact that doing something small can have.

Now, that I have grown I have come to learn how much better it can be to buy from these local companies.  The prices are better, they give local families jobs, and more often than not they are concerned about being eco-friendly and recycling because they know it impacts them and their customers.  If you look through many of the reviews and posts on Parsimonious Pash you will see that I love those smaller businesses.

I was recently reading an article that was written by Mark Dwight, the founder of Rickshaw Bagworks, where he said something that really hit home with me:

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. Once you embrace the fact that sustainable business practices save money, simplify operations, and build brand equity, you will continually seek new ways to embrace them.”

This concept is one that just clicked in my head.  Doesn’t it make sense that there is a way to make businesses sustainable.  I don’t think many businesses manage to create a business that is sustainable and saves money, Rickshaw Bagworks, manages to do that.  Their products aren’t the cheapest on the market, but they are high quality products that are made to order instead of creating a lot of extra stock that might not sell.

 

 

Just listening to them talk about their company showed the passion, and the drive that they have. It makes me wonder why more people and more companies can’t think like Rickshaw Bagworks and become an urban crafter?  When I find companies like this that stand up for their products and try to find ways to save money without compromising the quality of the product.  Part of how they manage to do this is by making products to order so that they do not have to discount or push product that someone might not want.

All of their products are customizable just like Design Turnpike is an urban crafter that I discussed earlier.  Even though their products are very different both companies have the same things in mind.  They want the products to be special and unique.  Each and every product that comes from their office.  That technique is so much better than the pre-fabricated items that you will find in big chain stores.   I think that the CEO of Rickshaw Bagworks said it better:

“We embrace what I call the “three f’s” of sustainable design: form, function, and footprint. We pride ourselves on making high-quality products for long-term, everyday use.
– Mark Dwight, CEO, Rickshaw Bagworks”

These three F’s are so important to remember and I love some of the things that Rickshaw Bagworks does that other places might not have thought of.  They ride bicycles any time that they can and they have re-usable mailers that are just too cool.  I like the idea, but also know that they wouldn’t work for every business out there.  If you work with fabric all the time though it makes sense that you use some of it to make reusable mailers to mail out your products to customers.

It is with that final note that I will wrap this up.  Think about where you are getting your things from when you purchase them because every little purchase and support for those local companies and manufacturers means a better economy for you and for everyone in the area.

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