Our Holstee Tees have already travelled far. Just last week, it also made it to Guatemala when I visited the beautiful country in Central America for a few days. I've been traveling before but it was the first time that I had my new Holstee Tees with me. And I realized that it's truly perfect for traveling: 1) It's a great way of keeping your money safe. Especially when traveling in cities like Guatemala City, the zipper pocket is a great way of keeping your money safe. If you want to go totally secure you can use the Holstee Tee as an undershirt and nobody will even notice the pocket. 2) It works well under very hot climate conditions. Even though the shirt is made out of 100% recycled Polyester, it is comfortable to wear even in hot climate.

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Score Swap is today - if you're not familiar, here is how it goes: Attendees bring their old clothes, music, books, etc, to the event and drop them at the door. Volunteers sort and distribute these items to themed departments where professional curators organize them into boutique-like displays. Attendees have the option to browse each department and take as much as they can carry! Meanwhile, DJs keep the party poppin’, artists silkscreen custom tote bags, and fashion photographers take photos of stylish “scored” outfits. At the end of the day, all leftover items and proceeds from the event are donated to charity. Check out the video from their last swap here. All proceeds from the May 29th Score! will be donated to Global Inheritance – a 501c3 that reinvents youth activism by providing tools via music, art and technology. All leftover donations will be delivered to charity, and all textiles will be recycled by Wearable Collections. WHERE: BKLYN Yard // 400 Carroll St btw Bond & Nevins DOORS: Noon – 6pm COVER: $3 w/ RSVP - ALL AGES - RAIN DATE: Saturday June 5th (following weekend) Hosted by MeanRed, Flavorpill, & Bust Magazine More info here or keep up with them on the interwebs here.

A short "behind-the-scenes review": Sun, sun, sun...Holstee T-shirts, FINs, friends, lemonade and even more sun... We spent all Thursday and Friday of last week at our mobile Holstee shop in Union Square Market and it was definitely a success AND A LOT OF FUN, too! A good crowd of interesting, inspiring and creative people, and we definitely took the chance on increasing the Holstee fan base. NYC is now dressed in Holstee Tees and FINs! Thank you all for coming and for those of you who weren't able to join us - there will definitely be another Holstee trip to Union Square Market soon. We will let you know!

On Thursday (march 18th) and Friday (march 19th), we will share our passion with you in Union Sq, NYC - to get some sun, introduce you to our new team members... and of course to present our latest Holstee products! We will be there from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are around, step by and enjoy some of our freshly Holstee made organic lemonade with us while listening to some good boombox tunes. And just in case you have some old t-shirts at home (no holes, no stains, well fitting), donate them to us and you will receive $10 off of one of our new shirts. So, come out and join us. We can't wait to meet you!

We swung into the tents at the 2010 New York Fashion Week.  We didn't have tickets to any particular runway shows, but from what we could tell, runway shows were cool- but the tent was where it's at - and I'm not just talking about the open bar.  The Tents offered a great chance to meet new + experienced designers and many others in the industry.  We brought along some fins to see what the most particular fashion community in the world thought of the Holstee Fin... and I'm proud to report- it was well received.  Check out our recently posted album on facebook to see some of the pictures.

Related articles you may enjoy!

• New York Fashion Week: Deux FM Fall 2010 Runway Show (Video) (treehugger.com)
• New York Fashion Week: JoAnn Berman (Slideshow) (treehugger.com)

It was just two weeks ago that we sent out smoke signals in hopes of connecting with some of California's most inspiring individuals and organizations- and we were thrilled with the response. Below are some of the highlights. Our adventures started down in San Diego at Dr Bronner's Magic Soap HQ. This family business has 150 years of soap making under their belt and a history worth making into a movie. We were excited to meet David Bronner, current president and 5th generation soap maker. After speaking with David we were inspired by the many progressive milestones this soap company has achieved and continues to have on its radar. Before we left, David connected us with his friend at Livity, a lifestyle and eco apparel company. On the way, we stopped for a coffee break with the wonderful Amrit Richmond, Art Editor of GOOD magazine- a unique quarterly magazine that has become increasingly well know for their telling infographics. Next Stop was Livity. Upon arriving at their beautiful HQ tucked away in the forests of Topanga, CA we knew we'd like these guys. We met much of the team including, including founder Isaac Nichelson who had recently participated with David Bronner in a brilliant display of civil disobedience for legalization of [industrial] hemp. We saw this as a great example of two progressive companies, only linked by their values and the unique uses for industrial hemp as key sustainable resources for their organizations. As a result of meeting with livity, looks like we are one step closer to incorporating Hemp fabrics into upcoming Holstee apparel :-) We then hopped onto Route 1 enroute to San Francisco. While there we met Architecture for Humanity founder and TED presenter, Cameron Sinclair to learn about their work re-building destroyed community centers in India and even building new soccer fields in Africa and a skateboard park in Afghanistan. One of the Archechects, we met was also helping to build a completely recycled, self sustaining boat called, Plastiki scheduled to travel around the world in the coming months. Any extra space in Cameron's office is opened to fellow social enterprises. One we definitely want to acknowledge is Lulan founded by Eve Blossom (also a Ted presenter as of 2 weeks ago). Eve has created what is probably the most thoroughly sustainable textile company we have come across. She found her business with intentions of combating human sex trafficking which has reportedly multiplied as result of the world economy. Through Lulan, she has been able to rehire hundreds of women desperate to support their families, but Eve doesn't stop there. Eve uses Lulan to help subsidize housing and education for the womens' families. While in San Francisco we got the chance to meet up with fellow entreprenuer, Mike Del Ponti, founder of Sparkseed. An innovative incubator and investor for socially focused student entrepreneurs. With Mike we met together with the fun folks over at Virgance - its amazing to see how entrepreneurs all over are working hard to do well, by doing good! Overall, the trip was a true inspiration. Oh and special thanks to our cousin, Omead for lending us his hybrid auto for the trip - only 4 fill ups of the tiny 10 gallon tank the whole trip!

As we prepare to launch our online shop next week, we've taken some time to reflect recently. Just 6 months ago, we were weighing the pro's and con's of quitting our jobs, amidst a growing recession, to start more than a new company, but a new lifestyle for ourselves. The most rewarding part of this journey continues to be the amazing, inspiring people we have met with Holstee as the catalyst. In light of this, we have decided to set out to the golden coast and meet with as many like minded folks as possible. It doesn't matter if you are a revolutionary magic soap maker, a progressive under wear designer student, or a lazy environmentalist, we want to connect on this trip! A quick break down of where we will be when: San Diego: November 19 + 20 Los Angeles: November 28 + 29 Santa Barbara: November 30 Santa Cruz: December 1 San Francisco: December 1 - 4

We just got back from an amazing road trip to the production house in North Carolina where Holstee's T-shirts and Fins are being made. We left last Wednesday on the 28th in the AM when the Genius Ride guys dropped off our Hybrid Prius rental at the apartment. The foliage made the ride down beautiful! We stopped mid way at Ramesh (our sister!) and Matt's (her husband) for some home cooked Persian food and a quick rest then hit the road again in the early AM. Our first stop in NC was our production facility. We got to meet the folks that we've spent the past several months corresponding with via phone and email including Ellen, the founder of the production house; Robyn our Pattern Maker; Bobby, the fabric cutter; and Carol the lead seamstress. At first when we arrived, there was a small hiccup, Bobby was a bit under the weather, and there were no back up cutters available. Cutting is the first thing that needs to happen, before any production can begin - delaying the cutting could push out our completion date by up to another week. A week we didn't have. Nonetheless, we worked with Ellen to ensure everything else was in place, and brainstormed a couple of things that could be done in the interim. We couldn't hang at the production house too long though, because we were scheduled to speak at Duke University within the next 3 hours.. and it was a 2 hour drive away... and needed to finish preparing. So we hopped back in the Hyrbid and began to make our way to Durham, NC. When we arrived at Duke we were immediately blown away by the beauty of the campus. Even more impressive though, was the sustainability program we learned about - from an on campus bike sharing program, to composting in the cafeteria's kitchen, to plans to be carbon neutral by 2024... it was so exciting to hear a University taking such bold, progressive steps. When it was our turn to speak in front of the 75+ student audience, Dave and I definitely shared a nervous energy. Once we got up and started sharing the origins of Holstee with the crowd and some of our goals - it felt nothing short of amazing. One of the highlights of our presentation was when Dave read the Holstee Manifesto out loud. At least five students came up to us afterward to share how they switched (or planned to switch) from a course of study they felt they should take to one that was actually aligned with their interests. It was a very neat moment. We spent the next couple of days in Durham exploring the rest of the 'research triangle'. UNC's Chappel Hill has a fun night scene and we even sampled NC State's homemade ice cream (they source their milk from cows on campus!). Next stop was Charlotte. Thanks to our host, Drew, the Charlotte we experienced was awesome and probably the most memorable city of the trip. We got to speak with the guys at Black Sheep Skate Shop where we learned that skateboarding in Charlotte is illegal (even for commuting)- a police officer can actually stop a skater, issue a ticket AND take their board away just for riding in the street. This was frustrating to hear- we're trying to get them connected with folks at Transportation Alternative and Streets Blog. We also got to hand write Holstee's manifesto on the wall of Owens Bagel Shop- this is the first place we will hit up next time we're in Charlotte. Our last stop in NC was the production facility. We had since heard that the fabric cutter was back in action, but his being out caused a backlog in their production line - but they were doing their best to catch up. We got there about the time the seamstresses usually wrap up, but to our surprise the whole staff was still there putting the final details on our T's and Fins... turns out they've become big Holstee Fans, and they told Ellen that finishing our project on time was important to them. So we're happy to say, not only are Holstee products hand made in the USA, they're made with love too :-)

A quick clip from our travels to California including a purchasing fabrics, celebrating a wedding, enjoying the beach and finalizing our new shirt design. Enjoy! Read the blog post here.