Genet was founded with a commitment to protecting the heritage and authenticity of handweaving in the local Ethiopian community. We are a women-led organization working with female artisans who have become part of our family and together we work towards ensuring a sustainable business.
We are a social enterprise. At the heart of our company are our artisans who sometimes have complex family responsibilities. Our work environment is focused on being flexible and family-friendly to support our largely female staff. They are hired with rolling contracts and we often build a relationship together over a span of many years. We believe in a healthy work-life balance and their wages above the national standard.
We provide training for our staff by working with “Partnerships for Change” and “The Women’s Health Association”, where our staff learns about quality control and weaving skills, as well as money-saving training, family planning and women’s health. We have a strict no-child labor policy at Genet, we care about making sure children don’t carry any burden of work. Our working environment is jovial and we always have an endless supply of traditional Ethiopian coffee so anyone can grab a cup.
We source cotton from Ethiopia making sure we are supporting the local economy, which helps us cut down on the carbon emissions that can be caused from foreign import. We receive all our yarn and cotton from Fairtrade certified vendors, with whom we have built relationships for years. Our major vendor is Sabahar, whose female-lead Kathy Marshall has created an ethical haven for local artisans and champions handmade Ethiopian production.
Caring for our community means caring for the environment, we practice a zero waste principle at Genet. Our pieces have been designed in a way that there is little to no material waste.
However the fabric left-overs are given to people in the local community for free, out of which people commonly make mattresses.
We have cultivated a unique style of hand stitching based on the Ethiopian heritage of weaving. At Genet we have found ways to use these traditional methods to make sure no external accessories are needed in our beautiful handcrafted pieces. This makes our products very easy to recycle. Not to mention we use 99% cotton which means endless recycling.
