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All you need to know about The Third Eye’s Sustainable & Ethical Trading
The woman behind The Third Eye tribe, Kim, is a passionate individual who sees beauty in everything around her. Kim has been operating The Third Eye in New Zealand for the last 20 years, sharing her unique and unusual finds from all over Asia.
Kim has been traveling to Asia, India, and Nepal for 30 years, where her admiration and connection to these beautiful countries originated. She has travelled to all the countries who produce their garments and homewares and has seen and experienced all daily work practices and environments for herself. All of the products that you find at The Third Eye have been sourced from small traders and suppliers throughout India, Nepal, and Asia. Kim travels twice a year to visit each individual source to both check on the conditions in which all products are made, and also to keep the relationships with the traders open and honest.
She’s spoken to owners and staff personally to ensure they work in safe spaces, and have good work environments for employees. The factories they use are small family-run businesses, which then support and sustain an entire extended family and community network. These small businesses are equally on a mission to preserve craft tradition and offer stable, living wage employment. They want to support their craftspeople and enable them to stay in their homes with their families and continue their traditions.
"I have known many suppliers for decades, I am an advocate for these wonderful small businesses, some have supplied products crafted by seventh-generation craftspeople. Some have started as community charity initiatives. I have watched their businesses flourish due to our mutual trading bringing sustainable change to disadvantaged communities."
The team at The Third Eye are proud supporters of the charities that champions women’s and children’s rights. We love being updated with the latest updates of support within the communities in which Kim sources her product. From buying cows and calves for families, to helping widows in remote India with zero income. Not just people, animals get a look-in too, with sponsorship for an animal shelter in a tiny village in Rajasthan. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, support was put in place for young school girls to graduate.
Kim's mission is, always has been, always will be to give back as much as possible.
“When an opportunity arises to both add value to our customer experience and support a new initiative, I will happily do so. For example; All our gift bags and pouches are repurposed from recycled saris made by a women’s co-operative. All the money goes directly to these women, and we are able to give them away with love”
The purchase of a single product aids everyone involved to rebuild and strengthen lives.
In a nutshell, Kim is always visiting current suppliers or looking for new ones who do not have a negative impact on the people who make it, or the environment they’re produced in. That can mean:
"I absolutely love Asia, and bringing back goods to the West whilst helping the East has been my passion and aim since I started trading."
2020 & BEYOND: The Third Eye is an ethical trading company. Supporting sustainability initiatives across the fashion world, reducing its carbon footprint & carrying ethical products in a push for more ‘conscious’ shopping. Supporting charitable projects.
We are also placing emphasis on the initiatives we ourselves are taking as a business to reduce our footprint and tread lightly upon the earth. We are by no means perfect and this is a long term project that we are committed to.
Join a tribe with heart
