Category Archives: TerraVida

On March 11th, the fifth biggest earthquake in history shook Japan.

Inspired by our friends at Bliss-Stick (they are donating $100 for every kayak sold), we will donate $5 for every shirt sold to relief efforts in Japan.

We will donate these funds to the American Red Cross relief efforts, or you can donate directly at the American Red Cross Website.

Our world is changing very very quickly. The proliferation of smartphones, mobile devices, wireless Internet, and cell networks means that we are now more connected than we have ever been as humans. This is excellent from a communication standpoint, and certainly helps us to conduct business in real-time, but the question must be asked… is it good to be connected ALL the time?

In order to illustrate where we’re coming from here, consider the following statistics:

-Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
-Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
-Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
-Number of hours the average user spends online each week (outside of 35 hours at work): 13
-Number of people who are having a cell phone conversation at any given second in the world: 4,239,956
-Percentage of people who talk more online than they do in real life:  57%

With these figures in mind, I would like to ask you…

How long have these things been a part of our lives as humans?

Not very long. Television has existed for 84 years. The Internet, 42 years. Cell phones, 38 years, and Facebook, 7 years. Let’s take the duration of television for example… that’s still only about 1/1000th of the time that humans have been on the planet. Technology does not have a direct correlation to happiness, and it never will.* In a time when so many people’s lives are consumed by their houses, cars, computers, phones, and money, we believe that it is important to occasionally remember what really matters.

“If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.” ~Frank Lloyd Wright

Sometimes you just need to unplug. What this means is different for every person, but taking a short amount of time to step outside and breathe in the natural world will always leave you happier and more at peace. These moments form the inspiration for TerraVida and its name.

The rat race, the grind, the man… they all just seem so trivial when you are doing something that you love.

Chris Gragtmans

* Just to clarify, I don’t mean to disregard the contribution that technology has made to our quality of life.  Obviously, any of us would prefer to have modern medicine and access to clean water over not having it.  The argument presented here refers instead to the dependence on technology and the need to always be connected.  Feel free to fire away in the comments!

T-Shirt contests are one of the areas where we see the most potential for TerraVida.  Allowing customers to create and vote on content is something that completely changes how many businesses will structure their operations in the future.

The traditional model involves businesses hiring top-notch, brilliant employees who create incredible work that they are sure will rock the world.  The company then hires marketers to tell people how much they need to love the products, and why they will gain social acceptance if they buy it.  This goes for clothing, cars, jewelry, electronics… anything really.  But it carries with it one common flaw… the market is influenced by the company.

What we want to do with our contests is reverse that idea, and put the customers in control.  By creating art and voting on it, our customers will guide what shirts they want to wear as a representation of the sport that they love.  This idea is called crowdsourcing, and it is changing the world.  Some of our motivation comes from witnessing the incredible designs that come out of the company Threadless… check them out if you’re not familiar with them.  They are a t-shirt business that is run entirely on user-submitted designs.  They have an amazing business model, but where they fall short is the fact that a kayaking, mountain biking, skiing, or other niche sport design will never win a Threadless contest.  There just aren’t enough numbers in our sports.

That is where we come in.  We have plenty of goofy ideas of our own, but we look forward to putting control into your hands, and allowing you to highlight just how darn cool outdoors sports are!

Now go create something awesome.

Nathan and Chris

Milton Friedman, a very influential business author and thought leader, believes in taking the legal form of a company at its word. A company is an individual entity in the eyes of the government, and has only one responsibility… to maximize shareholder wealth. A company, according to Friedman, is not and should not be influenced by anything else. This means utilizing the cheapest labor possible, leveraging the cheapest materials possible, only honoring service requests that are legally binding, and so on and so forth. He basically believes that as long as the operations are legal, the company should go for it, regardless of the negative fallout that occurs.

Friedman believes that giving back to the world should be left up to the individuals themselves, and not to the company. Although a compelling and logical argument, it is only justifiable for (A) those who never actually see the horrible effects of it, or (B) those who were somehow born without a conscience.

Given the amount of industrial pollution that is currently being poured into our atmosphere, rivers, and oceans, the sweatshop labor that is used to drive costs down, and the finite and rapidly diminishing nature of the world’s petroleum resources, we clearly have a problem on our hands. Those are the outcomes of a world of corporations governed by the myopic focus on profit at all costs. In founding TerraVida, we are very interested in following the example of companies such as Patagonia, and reshape what corporate social and environmental responsibility means.

We are fortunate to be in good company in our own industry as well… Astral Buoyancy, Immersion Research, Shred Ready, and Tribe are already breaking the trail for others to follow. As for ourselves, we are committed to constantly rethinking our operations to find ways to be more eco-friendly. We currently use water-based paints on organic or recycled t-shirts. We also pledge 1% of sales to one customer-selected charity or non-profit per quarter. This translates to roughly 5% of profit, and is something that we look forward to giving back to the beautiful places that we love playing in.

Every business is an iterative process, and we look forward to working towards bettering the planet through our company’s existence.

The TerraVida Team

I have often heard the analogy of comparing a start-up business to an airplane. A tremendous amount of energy (and risk) is present in getting the wheels off the tarmac at the very beginning of the flight, and the adjustments and recalculations that occur mid-flight are necessary, though not quite as difficult and pivotal.

I can’t yet speak from experience on whether the second part is true with TerraVida, but the take-off friction is certainly living up to its reputation! In spite of the frustrations of getting a business running properly, Nathan and I are both so excited about the potential of what we are bringing to the market.

We also believe that it is important to outline the core beliefs of the business. These are unconditional and will exist as long as TerraVida does:

1) Make excellent products (both in sustainable materials and stylish design)
2) Always involve our customers (it is our hope that design contests will become the primary driver for our apparel art, and we plan to make it worth it to you!)
3) Pay it forward (this will also be guided by our customers, but we pledge 1% of our sales, in perpetuity)

So, sir or madam reader, that is what we stand for. We look forward to the journey, and hope there is enough engine power and runway for a good takeoff!

Chris and Nathan