I stumbled upon this post from 'No Impact Man' Colin Beaven in response to the NASA report and it has become a topic for conversation over at Holstee for the past week. Regardless of the political stance on the issue, I think these questions get to the heart of the matter: 

Why were we born? What is really important in life? Are we living in line with that? Or are we distracted from the point of our existence? Is there a way to get people to wake up and ask these crucial questions?

Is there a way to get governments to do so? Because if we are wrecking the place in fulfillment of our human purpose, then so be it. But if we are wrecking the place while sleepwalking our way from birth to death? Living unconsciously and wrecking the place in that process? That seems like such a terrible tragedy. How can we wake up? -Colin Beaven

It basically gets down to something that we want to be the common thread through everything we do at Holstee and the lifestyles we live day-to-day. We want to live consciously, being aware of how each and every decision we make affects the world and those around us and doing something about it. It calls for waking up and realizing our ability to decide to leave the world better or worse than we found it.

Wendell Berry is quoted saying, "We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it." 

Indeed. 

See the full article from NASA here. Visit 350.org to find ways to act.

This timelapse of Yosemite just blew me away. The world is such a beautiful place, isn't it? Especially when you slow down and pay attention to the details. Cheers to Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty of Project, Yosemite for bringing this stunning piece to life. 

If the sight of blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. -Eleonora Duse

We had the pleasure of meeting Mike Rome and Muffadal Saylawala during their visit to New York last week. Filled with enthusiasm and purpose, Mike & Muff quit their jobs to follow their passion, starting the blog Buy Positively to push the coversation on conscious consumerism. Mike & Muff's inspiration is infectious--we are thrilled to have met them and so excited to see Buy Positively grow. I asked Mike to share a bit of their story with you: 

Yvon Chouinard just called my cell phone. I’m scrambling. My bones are quaking. Nerves are heavy, but I’m feeling alive – more so than ever before.

I’m juggling my final days of mind-numbing spreadsheets while playing co-founder to a big hairy audacious startup. It’s 2:30pm on a Monday, and I’m pinned down on a conference call for the life that I’ll soon be leaving. At the same time, my cell phone is ringing. The number reads “unknown”. I let it go. One minute later, my voicemail is buzzing. I put corporate America on hold. I play the voicemail. My life is about to change.

Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia, just called my cell phone. That’s right, the godfather of the business-with-a-conscious mantra. He’s a hero of mine, and old-fashioned persistence is about to pay off. He was just on line 1. (We’re a startup, we only have one line – this is already going to my head!)

I suppose I should back up. Muff and I met in October at a Chicago photography panel. When we met, Muff had recently parted ways with Big 4 accounting, and I was dancing on the edge of my 9-5 and following intuition. A lot of stars aligned that day – we were young, naïve, exploding with ideas and content with the idea of failure.

After a couple of months of collaboration, we decided to tackle 2012 together. We’re developing a model to help courageously responsible brands more effectively engage in philanthropy. For us, it’s about making consumerism’s benefits extend well beyond the individual. For brands, purpose is on fire right now; our aim is to make it burn brighter than ever before.

Fresh off an expedition to NYC where we met with socially innovative brands like Holstee, we’ve been inspired like never before. As we continue to brainstorm design and development on our new venture and talk with brands to validate our ideas, we’ll be blogging about smarter consumption and meaningful ideas at buypositively.com – we’re no strangers to Twitter either.

Woops! Almost forgot. Yes, I called Yvon back. We chatted for over 30 minutes on how social responsibility is the future of business. The brands that bake this into their DNA, the one’s that allow this line of thinking to penetrate every facet of their business will be the brands that thrive. Today, consumers have more momentum than ever before. We’re the influencers; our wallets can be the catalyst for positive change. If we continue to become more mindful of what we buy, how much we buy and where it comes from, we can shift the paradigm from buying excessively to buying positively. 

We couldn't agree more! Thanks guys!

(photo credit by Arthur Tsao Photography)

Our Manifesto Poster is one of the Holstee best sellers. We produce the poster with our friends from Aardvark Letterpress in LA and they work day and night to make sure we meet our high quality standards in production.

Check out this wonderful film by Ben Proudfoot about Aardvark Letterpress and learn more about Cary and his family. (Music by Kyle Malkin).

For us this film is a solid reminder of how proud we are to work with Aardvark. We are so thankful to them for their part in helping us provide a beautiful poster, made locally with a lot of love and human power.

I've been running sales the last several months and I'm thrilled to say Holstee is now available in over 30 independent shops from Portland, Oregon to Oslo, Norway :)

After spending most of the summer and early fall planting many seeds, it's all starting to pay off and the road ahead is bright. As we make our way across the US and beyond, I'd love to hear what shops you think Holstee would best fit in. 

Some cities on our radar are: Berkeley, Austin, Chicago, Boulder, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans and Baltimore. But there's plenty more places we'd love to establish a home away from home, so please reach out if you know a good fit for Holstee, regardless of where you live (email below).

I also want to announce that our wholesale page is looking real fresh these days by way of our superman developer team Thomas + Dave. Props to you guys for the painless facelift. 

2011 was a remarkable year for Holstee and my mind runs wild when I think of the possibilities for 2012 as we have one of the most amazingly strong and supportive communities one could ask for. 

Thanks for all the love + encouragement from all our shops, customers, fans, supporters, co-creators and producers. 

Cheers to setting the human soul on fire. 

MIKEY@holstee.com