Less Stuff. More Impact.

We’ve spent the larger part of our careers designing, co-creating and marketing products from artisans. And throughout the journey, we had the same goal - to create products that also create a positive social impact.

But two decades into this journey, we took a pause and asked: Is our work achieving its intended outcome to the fullest? Can the consumption of more stuff really improve the lives of people who live on less than a dollar a day?

Is sustainable consumption a contradiction in terms? 

Weighty questions? Yes. Important questions? Definitely. 

We know that the demand for handmade product has grown. But to what extent have lives improved in proportion to our efforts and investment? There’s honestly a lack of data on that fundamental question, which is another topic for another time. But we do know that most artisans live below the poverty line. We also know that 2% of workers in fashion supply chains do not earn a living wage. And we’ve directly experienced how the mass production of artisan products intrinsically decreases profit margins. And artisans on the frontlines of production are the first ones to feel that squeeze. 

The journey of the past two decades has led us to both undertake and posit a paradigm shift. A shift in which we question: Can we create a world in which less stuff generates more impact? 

At Proud Mary, we believe that not only is it possible to create such a world. But that it is also necessary to create that world. 

For decades, we’ve pushed and adopted models which have told us that we can address our world’s drastic economic inequity through consumption. Yet these models operate within the same profit-driven, extractive constructs which created the inequity in the first place. And these models have also contributed to a world in which we are shipping massive amounts of product around the world, creating a great ecological footprint without consideration for those products’ ultimate obsolescence. 

We need to create a world in which less truly is more. 

At Proud Mary, our contribution towards creating that world is to elevate craft as art. When we see craft for what it truly is - art - we remember that artisans are truly artists. They create works and pieces that should live on our walls and exist within our families forever.

And as artists, they are deserving of the same recognition, celebration and compensation as the same artists whose canvases and prints grace our most inspired spaces. 

Upon discovering and selecting our partner artists at Proud Mary, we commission original pieces which we share both on Proud Mary and through partner galleries. We then translate their works into limited edition fine art prints, with the sale of each print generating newfound passive income for the artist in the form of royalties. 

Through our royalties model, in which 15% of the sale price of each print returns to the artist, and 50% of the sale price of each original work, a single work can generate, on average, a 200% return for the artisan. 

Our partner artisans are not producers at the base of the pyramid, toiling with their hands to reproduce samples and mechanically abide by rigid tech packs to earn minimum wage - or less. Rather, they are the creative inspiration, unique voices and artists of each work of art - and each authenticated reproduction - on Proud Mary. And they are compensated as such.

That’s how less is more, and how less can truly become more. This is how we are redefining value creation in a way that amplifies the creative voices of artisans and folk artists everywhere.

And this is how together we can achieve a net positive impact - and work towards a world in which less stuff can truly create more impact.