Saturday, July 25, 2009

Marian College Alumnus Eric Sanchez- Environmental Entrepreneur

Rain Tree Gear is an online apparel company, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by Eric Sanchez ’04 and Marc Colwell, this eco-friendly company was launched in December 2008, as a local source for one hundred percent organic cotton T-shirts.

Eric Sanchez graduated from Marian with a bachelor of arts, specializing in art therapy. During his time at Marian, Sanchez was an outstanding member of the Marian Men’s Soccer team and later went on to play semipro soccer.

It was at this time that Sanchez met and established a friendship with Marc Colwell, his coach and soon-to-be business partner. Both men share a concern for the environment and are dedicated to creating a business that will pave the way for a better tomorrow. A portion of every sale is donated to environmental causes through The Conservation Fund, http://conservationfund.org. “It’s about the process of giving back,” explained Sanchez, “and taking part in something bigger.”

The Office of Alumni and Parent Relations is proud to highlight Sanchez’s career path and continues to support the efforts of all Marian alumni. For more information on Sanchez’s remarkable story please visit Alumni News.

Rain Tree Gear company and product details, as well as ordering information visit http://www.raintreegear.com.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Rain Tree Gear apparel available at Sweeney Todd salon & World Trade Bazaar

Rain Tree Gear and Sweeney Todd & World Trade Bazaar
Creating Beauty, Changing Lives

By Francisca Rodriguez

Two companies that understand the importance of creating beauty and changing lives are local organic clothing company Rain Tree Gear and salon Sweeney Todd & World Trade Bazaar.

Rain Tree Gear’s Marc Colwell and Eric Sanchez are committed to improving the environment from start to finish in the creation of their products they even use environmentally friendly water-based ink for their silkscreen process; an additional eco-friendly step. “We want to make sure the process taken with Rain Tree Gear clothing is environmentally friendly,” said Colwell.

Now teamed with Ann Ovans and Jeannie Bentrup of Sweeney Todd Salon & World Trade Bazzar, located at 2999 S. Delaware in Bay View, the two have joined forces, to not only help the environment, but also those in it.

Opened in 2004, Sweeney Todd began as solely a salon. Now, years later, it has evolved into not only a stylish place to get your hair done, but also a place of Fair Trade: an organized social movement which promotes standards for international labor, environmentalism and social policy.“As I learned more about Fair Trade, it was a wake-up call. I started to look at the tags on all my clothes and asking ‘How do you know? How do I know if a child made this, or someone who was paid nothing’,” said Ovans.

Offering high quality, hand-made merchandise including art, jewelry, pottery and now clothing, with the addition of Rain Tree Gear, Sweeney Todd strives to help global and local artists, and to promote fair trade. “We wanted to offer items with a story; items that had meaning,” said Ovans.With that in mind, Sweeney Todd now offers a large variety of clothing from Rain Tree Gear, including men’s and women’s t-shirts and bamboo baseball caps, all accented with the stylish Rain Tree Gear logo.

Aside from being featured in Sweeney Todd, customers can also buy Rain Tree Gear Apparel from their website www.raintreegear.com. Along with the t-shirts and hats available, Rain Tree Gear is also in the process of adding organic tote bags, baby clothes, and “any other organic apparel we can find,” said Sanchez.

Rain Tree Gear donates a portion from each product sold to a charitable organization.“We just made our first charity donation to The Conservation Fund. It was a partnership that just made sense to us based on our mutual goals. It’s all about doing your part,” said Sanchez.

Both Rain Tree Gear and Sweeney Todd are dedicated to being a part of something bigger and are not only giving back to their community, but as they each do their part to promote fair trade and a care for their environment by starting local, are taking action that if followed would benefit and change the world.