Open letter to “our” bloggers and supporters
In the midst of all the holiday hustle-&-bustle we often hear that we should remember what’s truly important – time, attention, appreciation – and make these the gifts we give to those who are most important to us. In this spirit we would like to sincerely thank everyone who has supported us in this way over the last year.
Text: Annika Langhagel
Hail, all you green-spirited bloggers and publicists, you photo artists and “Fair” fashionistas, you sneaker heads and vegan warriors: Without you Ethletic would be completely inconceivable!
Justine from the blog “Justine kept calm and went vegan” with her boyfriend Alex. Justine focuses on vegan clothing, fair fashion, sustainability, personal development and delicious, healthy vegan recipes.
“Natural” and “organic” are buzzwords that frequently pop up in connection with our shoes.
But we don’t want to limit the significance of these words only to our products. They should equally apply to Ethletic and its development.
In the fashion industry and other branches it is standard practice to finance a new season with funding from banks or investors. So everything about a campaign, the photos, advertising, everything, is paid with borrowed money.
We do things differently. Our growth is always driven by our own resources. Of course, this involves lots of number crunching and weighing up pros and cons. Can we really afford that? Do we really want to afford that? Will we survive the winter, when sneaker sales are always down?
The advantage is of course that we retain our independence this way. We can set our standards and priorities ourselves.
This is also why you’re unlikely to ever see us on “Shark Tank”. After all, do you really want to see our sneakers “strategically positioned” at the supermarket cashier? Should we be grabbing at quick profits and abandoning our principles? No, thanks. We prefer to take the longer road and enjoy the view along the way!
“We want to embody our ideals and blaze new trails, especially together with the brand’s community. We prefer to use the money expensive campaigns spend in the print sector on things like social impact”,
explains Ethletic boss Marc Solterbeck.
But this also means that working with us is not always easy. We are, after all, a small team. We’re not always able to make things happen at the drop of a hat, our people can be difficult to reach from time to time, and sometimes even truly appealing projects and sponsorship deals fall through for budgeting reasons.
We’re sorry about that.
We intentionally avoid classic “influencer marketing”, preferring “word-of-mouth” propaganda (which is not always a negative term, right?). We also enjoy getting our shoes out there to people through actions like our weekly giveaways. And sometimes we comp sneakers to bloggers who have a kindred spirit for the ecology, fair trade and so on. #PRsample is the corresponding hashtag for this.
What we don’t do is “#Sponsoredposts” where we dictate the wording for how to present our shoes. We don’t set preconditions.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZJBnQtgXpj/?taken-by=heylilahey
Mia from the Berlin-based fair fashion blog “heylilahey” takes great photos during her travels.
So it’s all based in a voluntary spirit where the generosity expressed by you, our supporters, plays a major role. You seem to be generally so on-board with our idea of fair, sustainable clothing and other goods that enjoying our products and presenting them to your followers is simply your natural reaction. For this we’re both grateful and humble.
You’re not wearing and promoting our shoes because we’ve paid you to! You do it because you genuinely like them and want to spread the word. That’s the greatest praise we can earn for our work, so we’re always ecstatic when the next picture tagged to @ethletic arrives, regardless of whether it’s from one of our supporting bloggers or from a normal customer.
For us, the fact that you carry the message of an ethical alternative out into the world is utterly priceless.
And we hope that even without the “Big Buck$” we can create a fair win-win situation where your work and creativity are worthwhile for you.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZgvJeVjt1o/?taken-by=xc.u.z
We were more than a little surprised when French fashion blogger and musician Nadir Sadofi contacted us from Paris. Wow, what an amazing profile! Nadir turned out to be a true fan of our Fair Trainer.
So we’re happy to provide you access to our (growing) reach! We’re linking and tagging like crazy here. And we’ve also come up with new formats like our upcoming “Ethletic Forum” where you can present yourselves and we can also introduce you to new folks we’re equally crazy about!
We’re already looking forward as well to continuing our development with you together here. And please don’t hesitate with any criticisms you might have…that’s the only way for us to get better!
The following photo list is in no particular order and is probably not even complete (please send your messages and tips directly to anni@ethletic.com). It does however show some of you who were especially active or who we shared with the world last year.
We wish you all a wonderful holiday season and an amazing 2018!
In deep gratitude,
Your Ethletic team
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXs16CRAwT6/?taken-by=andikauba
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcVIkl1nXoR/?taken-by=theaugustlion
https://www.instagram.com/p/BbrEtDYHWeE/?taken-by=thesoulfoodtraveller
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUhHPD3lv61/?taken-by=sandyppeng
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ2GOBuDjq6/?taken-by=atleastblog
https://www.instagram.com/p/BczZWZLF_7P/?taken-by=fairnica
