Plenty Magazine recently featured our sports balls in a lineup of cool (and useful) green gear for this Spring on a New York morning TV show. Check out the article and the video.

A new online magazine has launched recently out of Colorado called eCo Times.

They report the latest on sustainable lifestyle choices and the new green economy, including an eCo Times piece yesterday on Fair Trade Sports. Their objective is to bring readers like you and me the best in cutting edge green media, organic and Fair Trade product reviews, and insights into viable planetary solutions. This is the same crew behind the eConscious Market.

The eCo Times mantra statement - "We’re putting the logic back into ecological." - resonates with me as well!

It seems that I’m not the only one anxious to get outside to play soccer with my son the minute it stops raining (pictured here in his kids tee shirt).

Fair Trade Sports has been cropping up quite a bit in the blogosphere this spring as parents prepare to toss the kids outside. Here are a couple of our favorites:

From Mamanista – Fabulously Chic, Irresistibly Practical. “Although I never took to sports, my husband is athletic and my little girl is already enjoying soccer. Sports teach discipline, teamwork, and coordination and keep children healthy. We have a small Fair Trade Sports soccer ball for baby to kick around with her friends.

Children have a right to be children–to play, learn, and explore. There is something dreadfully wrong children forced to work in unhealthy conditions, and it is even more disturbing to think that less economically privileged children might be making toys for children in more developed countries. Every kid has a right to a childhood.”

From Cool Mom Picks – We Find It, You Flaunt It. “Thanks to the toy recalls, I am much more concerned about where and how the toys I'm purchasing for my kids are made. But it's not always as easy to get the backstory on your playthings as Fair Trade Sports makes it.

Perhaps it doesn't seem like having a certified fair trade soccer ball or basketball or rugby ball is such a big deal--but don't you think a ball should make more of an impact on the child playing with than the child who is forced to hand stitch it for 4 cents an hour?”

Fair Trade Sports wants to thank all the parents who continue to teach their children about Fair Trade ethical purchasing and to the people who help share our mission with their readers through the blogosphere.

I'd like to introduce you to a crew of folks at a new startup called EVO from Santa Monica, California.

People everywhere are actively looking for ways to do their part to address the climate changes that are impacting our planet.

Unfortunately being an environmentally conscious consumer is not as easy as it should be – good information is disaggregated and hard to find. EVO provides a huge selection of green products, services, and information all in one place.

So far they’ve handpicked 400 companies - like Fair Trade Sports - representing more than 20,000 green products and services. From hybrid vehicles to home furnishings to sports balls, their goal is to make it easy for you to make greener choices every day.

While government and big business have major roles to play in the rapid shift necessary to bring our delicate ecosystem back into balance, each person’s daily choices multiplied by 300 million people in the U.S. (and billions worldwide) can add up to a major collective impact. EVO’s goal is to make it easy for individuals to make greener choices every day.

If each of us chose locally grown organic produce, changed at least a single light bulb, made sure our next car got more than 40mpg - we would go a long way toward decreasing the demand for wasteful, harmful products and increasing our quality of life now and for our children. Check out EVO.

When in doubt, I like to encourage less consumption, not more. But if you cannot find a good used version of what you are looking for, check out this video of cool green products from Green Festival Seattle, just in time for Earth Day.

Waylon Lewis is a funny guy. Quite funny, in fact, but also a poignant speaker on current events. Take a glimpse into life in Boulder, Colorado in this short elephant magazine video clip of Waylon. Be sure to check out the rest of their video series as well.



Props to Mathew Gerson at eConscious Market for supplying Waylon with the Fair Trade soccer ball to pitch from the stage.

The Spring 2008 premier print edition of The Green Guide Magazine from National Geographic hit newsstands on March 4.

In keeping with their green roots, The Green Guide is made of post-consumer recycled paper with new pulp from wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (yes, the same group that certifies our rubber). In addition, the inks are made without heavy metals to keep the eco-footprint even lower. When you pick up your copy, check out Fair Trade Sports featured on Page 12.

Click here for a sneak peek.

Kellee Sikes from Pioneer Technologies wrote an interesting article called Social Responsibility: Charity Hijacked that featured some kind words about Fair Trade Sports.

It made the home page for FastCompany today. Check it out.

For an oft-humorous quick read about green-living tips, consider checking out Ideal Bite.

This week their focus was on green tips for guys.

My friend don Miguel was recently out looking for surf in Northern California when he took this self-portrait. DM is one of the founders of Guayaki, the leading company that brings us a fairly traded organic green tea called yerba mate which helps me survive these cold gray Pacific Northwest winters.

Don Miguel, David Karr, Pierre Ferrari and the rest of their crew are doing an amazing job with their company, bringing high quality yerba mate products to the US while generating money to reforest large areas of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay.

Look for it in your local grocery market, or if you are in Northern California, stop by their new cafe at 6784 Sebastopol Avenue.

What a great pairing to help survive the winter blues...two eco-friendly Fair Trade products that get your body moving and energized - a soccer ball and a warm yerba mate drink!