this fall, umano had the awesome opportunity to partner with CAUSEBOX to design their limited-edition fall box!

we've loved getting to know the stuff-starters behind this company, so we wanted to give you a formal introduction.  

#umanounion, meet co-founders, matt richardson and brett mccollum. these guys founded CAUSEBOX because they recognize how extremely difficult and time consuming it is to find socially conscious brands. CAUSEBOX is a california based company that offers a quarterly curation of socially conscious lifestyle products for women. the products inside each box help provide jobs, meals, education, clean water and more to people around the world.

co-founders, matt richardson + brett mccolum

“anyone can walk into a Whole Foods and trust that diligence has been done to ensure that the products they purchase are ethically and sustainably made — but this kind of faith and trust can't be placed in any institution that curates non-consumable products.”

-matt richardson: CAUSEBOX co-founder

 

the CAUSEBOX duo  believes it's important that we put food in our body that is ethically harvested by a workforce that is fairly compensated — they also believe that it's just as important that the cotton in our shirts, the jewelry around our necks, and the accessories around our home are ethically produced. the CAUSEBOX team is on its way to creating a place where people can discover and support brands that are creating the kind of world we all want to live in. currently CAUSEBOX is curated solely for women, but according to the founders, this is only the start (so be on the lookout, dudes!)

 

 to get a deeper look into CAUSEBOX, we asked the pair of co-founders a couple q's: 

  

q. why do you find it important to support socially conscious living?

 a. “on a saturday morning not so long ago, I was biking through a coastal farming town after a night of camping. I pulled over because scores of men and women were running up and down the fields with trash barrels over there heads and they were filling them with bell peppers. their faces were covered. it was just

after dawn, before much of the city was even awake. I would later find out that these were mostly undocumented immigrants who did not have the power to unionize for fear of being sent back to mexico, and that they were running through the fields because they were being paid per barrel (a shameful and illegal sum), and that their faces were covered because the pesticides in these fields were extremely harmful, and also verging on illegal. the amount of money that these workers were earning was enough to allow a dozen or so of them to live in a single bedroom just outside of the farm. it is hard to describe the impact of connecting all of these dots, and seeing a thing like this in your own backyard. I decided then I couldn't support a system that subjected humans to subhuman conditions — and it caused me to make a conscious decision to purchase food differently.“it simultaneously occurred to me that all the things we wear and use on a daily basis can also be made one of two ways — ethically and morally, or otherwise. and I made it my mission to share the ethical version of everything with as many people as possible.”

 

   q. what excites you most about waking up and going into work each day?

a. “we are a startup and everyday we're met with new challenges, but new challenges present opportunities to learn. and learning is the name of the game.” *  

*note from umano brother + ceo alex torrey: amen and retweet.

 

     q. what has been your biggest accomplishment as a company?

a. “we're generally just very proud of the way our community responds every time we send a box out. there is nothing like the affirmation and gratitude of thousands of people about a product that you spent all kinds of time to put together — we're just proud and grateful for all of the messages we receive and the way that our community also continues to support the companies that we partner with.”

 

fall box drawn by umano Artist, Jasmine, from harlem, ny

 

thanks for speaking with us, matt + brett!

 

learn more about CAUSEBOX and browse the umano fall box + the products inside it here:

www.causebox.com