Wow, it’s getting cold outside. Perfect weather to play soccer in!

Here’s what we’re listening to this week as we watch the thermometer outside drop:

• Rich Mullins: Ragamuffin…
• Presidents of the United States of America: self-titled
• POD: Satellite
• Love Coma: Language of Fools
• George Winston: Linus & Lucy (classic “Great Pumpkin” music)

Black Gold is an award-winning documentary film on how the coffee crisis is impacting farmers in Ethiopia and around the world. We urge our customers to watch this important movie if you are in a city that has screenings. If Black Gold is not playing near you, please consider renting the video when it becomes available.

Just as our Fair Trade sports balls fill an important segment of the overall Fair Trade movement, so do excellent films like this one.

Find a screening near you.

Need *alot* of sports balls? Not a problem. In addition to our retail, wholesale, and distributor pricing, we also offer private label pricing through our domestic partner Fair Deal Trading USA.

If you are interested in a minimum order of 250 units, just ask and we can help you from design to delivery to your door.

There are alot of connections between the growing union-made movement and the Fair Trade movement as they both seek to better the lives of producers. Where those two movements connect with Fair Trade Sports is with our manufacturer, Talon Sports, in Pakistan (most sports balls produced in the last several decades have come from Pakistan).

In the interest of transparency and Respect, we wanted to pass the information to you about the union workers making our sports balls.

• Name: Talon Workers Welfare Union
• Representative name and contact: Shabbir Ahmed Choudhry 0092-300-713 6168
• Number of members: 120
• Last election: January 2005
• National affiliation: APOFL, PAKISTAN
• International affiliation: ICFTU (THROUGH APFOL)
  

The elections were facilitated by Sardar Rehmat Ullah Khan (APFOL) and witnessed by IMAC, CEO and another NGO working on child labor rehabilitation. View photos of Talon’s certificates and elections held at Talon Lawn.

You’ll notice that the Fair Trade Sports brand usually has some reverse relationship between the colors orange and white. I know why we did it that way, but those reasons are probably only interesting to marketing dorks like me. So I recently asked some folks around the country, “What does the orange dot mean to you?” Here’s what we heard. Add your reasons below in the comments, or send us more email…

• Stand out at my high school practice and make a statement without ever saying anything. 
• Goes with the lifestyle statement I’m making on [my college] campus. 
• The orange dot means my child is playing with a ball that was not made by someone else’s child. 
• It is the recognition that this ball is different, better, hand-made by someone who benefited directly from my buying it.

So what does the orange dot mean to you?

Buy a shirt, send us your photo, and tell us Fair Trade Sports means to you. We’ll post your photos (with your permission) on our Flickr page.

Ah, the joys of Top Ten lists. Here’s another Top Ten list of ways you can get involved with the Fair Trade Sports team.

1. Buy a t-shirt and send us your photo;  we’ll post them on our Flickr account. Show everyone in your town what Respect means!
2. Give us feedback on our line of products. For instance, do we have the type and size of sports balls that you need? 
3. Use our Tell-a-Friend page to send messages to friends near and far encouraging them to give “gifts that give back” this holiday season (we hate spam as much as you do; your information is safe with us). Or if you prefer, use Amazon’s Tell-a-Friend feature through Alexa to do the same.
4. Start discussions in the comments sections of our posts or continue to dialogue with us via email.
5. Whatever your skill set, put it to work for the Fair Trade movement and help us tell our story via film or Flash. You could make FTS ad tiles - like the one you see to the right - for your MySpace or campus web pages. Or a normal banner ad, an e-card, a sticker, a poster, or whatever else your brain thinks of. When you think of Fair Trade,  Respect, and sports, what do you see? Feel free to use our brand elements. Send us your stuff and we’ll feature them on our sites as well! Here’s a good example.

6. Link to us from one of these community groups: Lime, Tribe, Facebook, or MySpace.
7. Order a set of Ambassadors of Respect cards (they are FREE) to write your name on and hand out to folks you know: coaches, sports store owners, even your mom.
8. Design your own Fair Trade sports ball. We’ll pick the best design every three months and produce the next set of balls based on your design…and in addition to massive amounts of fame, you get a free ball, of course. When you think about your favorite sports, Fair Trade, and Respect, what kind of design do you see? Sketch out your thoughts and fax it to us, send us a digital photo, or use this template in Illustrator, PhotoShop, or your favorite design application. Have fun!
9. Get a pack of our stickers and plaster them everywhere. Er…plaster them everywhere in a responsible manner, of course.   :)
10. Put on a Fair Trade Tournament in your town, with your favorite sport, and encourage everyone to be training and competing with a Fair Trade sports ball.

As always, feel free to send us your own ideas in the comments section below or via email.

For those of you on Facebook, hit our new page and join our group of folks concerned with fighting child labor, supporting the Fair Trade movement, and training with high quality sports balls stitched by adults paid a living wage! 

 

For those of you with no clue what Facebook is, don’t fret. You can learn more here.

Normally, marketing people prepare what’s known as a Rude FAQ…an internal-only Frequently Asked Questions that tend to be asked by “rude” people like journalists, activists, and pretty much everyone else for whom I have Respect for asking the tough questions. The marketing team then has all their sales people, promotional people, and customer service people memorize the answers. I know; I’ve done this for several companies.

We decided to publish ours for two reasons: 1) we are a company that strives for real authenticity and transparency - not just lip service, and 2) having an internal-only document always made it seem like we had something to hide (in some cases, they really did). As we seek to build community among such distinct groups as college-aged Fair Trade activists and stereotypical “soccer parents”, we want you to have a clear picture of Fair Trade Sports…the good, the bad, and the as-yet-to-be-determined.

So here’s our Top 10 Rude FAQ; let’s start with the big one…

1. If you give away all your money, how can your team afford to work with Fair Trade Sports and still buy groceries?
   Like Newman’s Own (the salad dressing and popcorn brand), we’re committed to giving away our “after-tax profits”.  Let’s be clear; that is different than giving away all our money. After-tax profits are generally defined as what’s left over after you pay items like salaries, utilities company, and of course, your raw inventory. Each year, we’ll also retain a small portion of our proceeds to fund the following year’s growth (likely ~10%). 
   
   What’s left over usually gets distributed to shareholders. Given that Susan and I are the sole shareholders, and we are not interested in making Fair Trade Sports a wealth-generating operation, we decided to funnel the after-tax profits towards children’s charities.
   
   
2. Why aren’t you interested in making Fair Trade Sports a wealth-generating operation for yourself?
   We (the founders Scott and Susan) decided we have already been blessed with a lot. We decided that we had enough, and wanted to use our skill sets to create positive change in the world. And just to clarify, we don’t believe there is anything wrong with creating wealth for yourself while doing good in the world; there are lots of examples of great people doing just that (Patagonia, Seventh Generation, etc.), many of whom are good friends.
   
   
3. What keeps you from setting your salary to be one million bucks like the scandals we read about in the paper?
   Theoretically, nothing I guess. Although all our family, friends, business partners, advisers, and legal counsel would disown us. Even our venture capitalist friends would raise an eyebrow at that.
   
   
4. What is your salary?
   Scott (the founder) writing here…you tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine (seriously, send me an email). My answer until 2009 will be zero (I’m not taking a salary while we start up), and then I’m on half-salary for a few years so we can get to profitability faster and stay there (hint: you can help with that…buy a ball). Basically my (theoretical) full salary will be average for a growing young family in the Pacific Northwest that enjoys buying organic groceries to supplement their own garden.
   
   
5. Why is getting to profitability fast important?
   It makes Fair Trade Sports, Inc sustainable, meaning we can keep doing good by helping at-risk children around the world and promoting the Fair Trade movement here in the States. With our model of giving away all after-tax profits (like Newman’s Own), the more profit we make, the more money is raised for children’s charities.
   
   
6. When will you be profitable?
   According to our best guesses, the end of 2008, although we are not getting our initial inventory in as soon as we hoped. Until we hit profitability, we are donating $1000 annually to each of the charities we support to begin the relationship and show them we are serious. Of course, you can help.
   
   
7. Are you a for-profit or non-profit?
   We’re a for-profit S Corporation, which means we pass through all our after-tax profits to whomever we want. Normally those dollars go into the shareholders or founders pockets. We’re a bit different; all the dollars from Fair Trade Sports will flow into children’s charities. With our bright legal/accounting team, we spent months looking hard at being a non-profit or a hybrid NP-FP model, but they all have significant limitations on how much of the after-tax profits you can give away.
   
   Other for-profit models limit you to 10%, others at 50%. And other hybrid models are even less attractive once you start asking the tough questions about what happens to the dollars that are generated. This is the only business model that allows us to give away 100%. It turns out that what Paul Newman and crew did in the early 80’s is still the most efficient business model for generating true charitable dollars. Nell Newman has proven it to be an effective model, with hundreds of millions of dollars generated for charity. Of course, since Scott is not as good-looking as Paul Newman, we won’t be putting his image on the sports balls.
   
   
8. How will you continue to fund the growth of the business if you give away the after-tax profits?
   Responsibly. Out of cash flow. Not by borrowing “ahead of the curve” or using other people’s money, which always comes with strings attached. We have some good friends who are venture capitalists and angel investors. They are great people and we love going to dinner with them, but we don’t want their money.
   
   
9. Why just charities for children?
   Because we have to start somewhere, and starting with children will (arguably) make the most significant long-term positive impact for their communities.
   
   
10. Can I come work for you?
    Yes, but don’t expect a salary until 2009. Seriously, this is a common question we receive, but Fair Trade Sports is a lean operation designed to generate money for charities. Everyone on our team is either a free agent or a volunteer lending their expertise pro bono. So yes, come work with us and help change the world. Start by ordering the  free Ambassador of Respect cards to hand out to everyone you know involved with a sport. Write your name on the cards. Join our team. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.
    

Have more questions? Send them to us and we’ll compile a Secrets Revealed! Rude FAQ II. Thanks for letting us be transparent with you, our customers and champions.

Here’s what’s in the music changer this week, as we continue our “bug bash” on the ecommerce portion of our site…

• Modest Mouse: Building Nothing…
• Siouxsie and the Banshees: Hyaena
• Iggy Pop: American Caesar
• Brazilian Groove by Putumayo
• POD: Satellite