A little while ago, a message popped up in our inbox from Etsy, wondering if we’d be down to do an interview about responsible sourcing. That’s a big deal, and I was pretty stoked to get to talk about ethics and hopefully get some of those ideas into new brains. It was especially interesting considering Etsy’s own struggles with enforcing ethical standards, allowing outside manufacturing, and the glut of resellers on the site. It’s easy to be critical of their softness on these issues, and rightly so. However, I appreciate the fact that they’re at the very least willing to pay lip service to ethical practices, so was excited to add my voice to the conversation.
The original interview was full of meaningful talk about ways in which you can avoid supporting sweatshop labor, sketchy environmental practices, and the outsourcing of manufacturing. We also went into how sustainability influences the design process, which is hugely important but not very glamorous, so it was good to go there. Since we were just going to be blurbs in the larger article, most of that didn’t make it in, but a few nuggets made the cut. It’s weird to have a 45 minute conversation boiled down to a couple of sentences. I felt out of context, exposed without supporting sentences, and worried that my point didn’t get across. I guess that’s how it goes. Still pleased about the exposure, both of our work and of good ideas. You can read the article here.