How a T-Shirt Company Is Helping Children in the Rain Forest

When the underlying basis of your business is philanthropic, it can be difficult to remain true to your original business model. But in this new economy, doing good is key to doing well: Customers care where their money goes. (This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)

Lynda Resnick: Tell me what we can do for you. Start from the beginning. Tell us what the product is.

Founder Beth Doane of Rain Tees

Beth Doane: I designed a line using artwork from children that live in endangered rain forests across Central and South America. I started by donating school supplies, and a lot of these children live so deep in these jungles that many of them have never held a crayon or [used] paper. So, they got to interact with all these new school supplies and tools, and they expressed what they see. I asked them to draw what they saw happening around them. A lot of it was really happy: butterflies and rainbows and things you’d expect to see in a tropical rain forest. But then, as we went through some of the artwork, things got really interesting.

In Peru, this little girl named Mariella, who’s 11 years old, drew a tree [with leaves falling]. She drew dead fish underneath it in the waterway, and it turns out in her village, oil companies had moved in. When they drill for oil, if it’s not cleaned up effectively, it goes into the water system and it can kill hundreds of thousands of fish. Also, when the trees try to pull up water through their roots, it’s toxic, so the trees start dying and literally lose their leaves. She drew what she saw, and she said that her tree was crying, and that the leaves symbolized the tears. Just the stories behind some of the art is amazing, so I took the artwork and I put it on women’s T’s. I did a collection for children as well that ranges from 18 months to 12 years old.

LR: What kind of basic t-shirt do you use?

BD: One hundred percent organic cotton. I do a crew-neck and a V-neck style. The t-shirts are all hand-made. When I was looking into manufacturing, I went through so many different options, but I settled on having them made right in the Amazon. I used the green manufacturing system, and I found that a lot of these [children’s] parents are forced to oftentimes work in illegal operations like logging [or] deforestation. I felt that that was really sad that there weren’t other opportunities, and sewing is skilled labor. The factories are vertically integrated, so everything’s done in one place, [which means] the person making the t-shirt can see it from start to finish. It’s all sustainable, and the factories are family-owned. The workers receive [wages] 20% above average.

LR: And what brought you to Peru, of all the needy countries on the planet?

BD: Peru is right in the heart of the Amazon rain forest. It’s a huge cotton-producing country, so we don’t have to import the fabric. Everything just fell into place in Peru. It’s also free trade between the United States, so there are no import taxes. Peru has great working conditions. It’s statistically a very fair labor country — workers are treated very well, and it’s enforced. Almost every country has labor laws, but whether or not they’re enforced is another story. So, I feel very confident working with Peru.

LR: Now, tell me how sales are going now.

BD: Sales are going okay, [but] not at all where I want them to be. We sell between three and seven t-shirts a day, mostly through our online retailers, and I have about 14 boutiques. Most of our boutique sales come through people hearing about us through a magazine. People Magazine was our biggest press hit so far. I’m actually in the process of looking into bringing on a PR firm.

LR: Be very, very careful honey. If you hire a PR firm, you’re going to be disappointed. Usually, you pay a fortune for PR. [Instead, you could have] someone part-time working for you under your direction, who could follow through. If you are trained as a writer, you can write your own releases. You need someone to just follow through with the press, get them on the phone to tell the story, get the bloggers involved. But I get ahead of myself. What percentage of your sales is coming from online?

BD: It’s almost exclusively coming from the Internet. I actually did the research before the call: 54% of our web traffic comes from referring websites, and most of that’s blogs and news sources.

LR: And then the rest is sold through your retailers?

BD: Everything is sold through the online retailers, unless it’s a boutique. We don’t sell directly through Raintees.com.

LR: [That’s] going to hold the business back. Look, I’ve been in direct response. I owned the Franklin Mint, so I’ve been doing this since 1984. It’s an easier business to sell wholesale, but you’re not in control of your own destiny – and it would be much nicer if you were. Retail is having serious problems. In the retail environment, it is hard for customers to understand your story. You’ve got to have a back-up by selling direct. You have how many retailers now?

BD: We have about eight websites that we sell through, and about 15 boutiques in cities scattered across the U.S.

LR: Let’s say there’s twenty now; next year, there might just be ten. You have something valuable. You are the model of the future, because you’re doing well by doing good. So, my first suggestion is, create an online business. My second suggestion is to go to Tom’s Shoes and study everything they’re doing. Do you know Tom’s Shoes?

BD: Very well, yes. I’ve been very closely following that, because they seem to totally get it. The buzz around them is amazing.

LR: So, tell me what your questions were.

BD: In the beginning, after I launched, I went to all the major department stores. They all said that I needed to drop the organic component if they were going to buy it, and that I needed to make it more trendy and fashion-forward. How do I handle that?

LR: Why would they want you to drop the organic component?

One of Rain Tees's many designs

BD: They said that they’re looking for something that looks eco-friendly, because the trend [that’s selling] is eco-friendly right now, but when you try to sell a product that actually is 100% organic, it’s a lot more expensive and the consumer doesn’t [want to pay for it]. When it comes down to it and they have a choice between two products, [the customers] tend not to go for the one that’s organic.

LR: It doesn’t sound like they really understood or wanted your product. What is the difference in price?

BD: It’s an approximately 20% increase for organic fabrics. Department stores, for example, want to buy a t-shirt for between four and seven dollars. It costs me close to seven to manufacture my t-shirts. [Add to that the cost of shipping to the U.S.], plus my profit, [and it’s too expensive for them].

LR: You have to make a decision. If you drop the organic, you have dropped your unique selling proposition. You’ll be just like everybody else. And you’ll never make it. I would really work on your pricing, if I were you. But be that as it may, I would suggest you do not drop the organic. I think that would be a tragedy.

BD: I’m in complete agreement.

LR: What was the second thing? They didn’t like the design?

BD: Yes, they said that my designs needed to be way more fashion forward. They needed something more avant-garde. They said that my designs were cute and appealing, but they wanted something that was more fashionable.

LR: That’s like going out on a first date and driving the girl in your new Volkswagen, She says, “You know, the car is great, but you have to put Rolls-Royce grill on it. And those tires will never do. And could you put fins on the back?” She doesn’t want you and your car, and they don’t want your t-shirts. And who are they anyway?

Here’s what I think. I think you found yourself a niche product. There are people out there – lots of them – that want to wear organic. They want the story. They want the romance of what you’ve done. They want to do business in [developing] countries. They want to wear something that doesn’t hurt the planet but gives back. They want to encourage children not to be defeated by the plight of their lives. And that’s your story. Have you written that story down?

BD: Not in that way, no. I’ve listed the steps. Like, when you buy a Rain Tee, you’re creating global change by supporting green manufacturing and by supporting the children’s ability to express themselves through artwork. But it could definitely be more concise.

LR: Do you hear the way I’m saying it? That approach that you spoke of seems like work to me. I’m exhausted! I want pictures of you there, working with your vendors. I want to see the children. I want to see a little document that really expresses the concept of “wear how you feel.” That’s a headline.

BD: That’s good. I like that.

LR: “You, the customer, feel that you want to give back to developing countries. And you don’t know how to do it. But we’re going to help you do it, and it’s going to be so lovely that you’ll want to wear it proudly because it is made from organic cotton. It is sewn by women in villages across Peru, in the middle of the rain forest, who have no other work but the work that we give them. Their children are expressing their happiness about life. You’re giving those children a future, because we’re getting their artwork on these very t-shirts, [which you can wear with pride].”

BD: That’s brilliant.

LR: Put together a brochure like that, on recycled paper. It’s a story. This little brochure should come with every t-shirt. And you say, right up front, “Yes, our t-shirts are more expensive, and you know the reason why”: [Because] it costs money to go to these countries to teach people how to be in business. It’s more expensive to grow organic cotton than to get some junk from China.

You have to be sure your prices are competitive for what you are delivering. Then go back to retailers that have shown an interest in this sort of thing; smaller chains like Urban Outfitters, Kitson, or American Apparel, where [customers] are used to paying a lot for a t-shirt.

And if you had an active website, you would go into the blogosphere and have a dialogue with all the bloggers that care about organic clothing and giving back. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. You’d send them sample t-shirts, you’d send them the story, they would blog about it, etc. [Your site] would be in the search engines, and your business would start to grow. You would Twitter about all your trips and what you were doing. You should have a Facebook page. It’s a lot to do, but I think you will do well if you could do it.

BD: Another question: I have a tree planted by a child in Costa Rica for everything that we sell. I’m starting to feel like that’s just become so popular [that] I’m wondering if it’s losing its appeal to the consumer. For so many things you buy now, people are planting a tree. I’m just wondering what I can do to create that global buzz around Rain Tees. Do I need to change the charity aspect of planting a tree? Do something different?

LR: First of all, what you’re doing is charity. The whole thing is charity, because you’re doing it [in Peru], but it would be nice if you could give a percentage of the profits back to the villages. I don’t think it should be a tree, because everybody is doing a tree. Maybe you could focus on building a school, or every year you could have a new project. In certain countries, you can build a school for $350. That would be the sort of thing that would resonate.

BD: That’s great advice, thank you.

LR: Call again, honey. I want to hear how you’re doing.

BD: I will. I will make sure to keep in touch. And I will put some tees in the mail for you. Thank you so very much. I really, really appreciate this.

LR: God bless.