World of Goods

Moving forward by giving back

We donate 1% of all sales to good causes across the globe... That’s a lot, especially for a company of our size! Like our co-founders, Pete and Kim Erskine, our charitable giving is generous, deeply rooted in Maine, and travels all around the world. We fund the causes we care about—community health and development, education, equality, the arts and the environment—and we choose the organizations we support carefully. We want our 1% to provide the skills, supports and resources needed to sustain long-term success in every single community where we do business. 

…and in times of greater need, we give even more. When a natural or humanitarian crisis strikes, 1% is not enough. We must give our all. And with the help of our amazing customers, we do! When a series of earthquakes devastated Nepal, we donated 100% of the sales revenues from our Tibetan Prayer Flags—$25,000—to desperately needed earthquake relief. One year later, when we learned that children in remote regions still didn’t have schools, we donated another $25,000 to help build one. When we heard that our artisans in the Guatemalan highlands didn’t have adequate housing for the rainy season, we began donating 100% of the proceeds of our beaded bracelets to building homes. It’s the right thing to do… and we couldn’t do it without you.

Mexicali Blues has always been green. Environmental awareness matters to us. When you see our famous tie-dyed Sprinter delivery vans, you know that they get crazy MPG. When you unpack a purchase, you know that our bags are 100% recycled (and often re-used!), our packing peanuts are biodegradable, and we always provide the option of a paperless receipt. We’ve cut our office paper usage by half, power our flagship store and headquarters with solar energy, and we seal off unused portions of our warehouse during Maine’s cold winters to reduce our need for heat. We raise awareness of environmental issues, contribute to environmental causes, and we sell environmentally friendly products like clothing made from hemp and recycled materials. The world has been good to us—and we make sure our business is good for the world.

We believe in buying local. How do you buy local when you source your products all over the world? At Mexicali Blues we buy from artisans not middlemen. We care about the quality of working conditions just as much as we care about the quality of the work, and that’s why we never haggle over the price with our suppliers. We want to make sure that everyone who helped to create our world goods is treated well and compensated fairly. We don’t just shop in markets. We spend time in the studios and homes of our makers and establish long-term relationships local communities can count on. We are dedicated to helping keep economies in remote or economically disadvantaged areas strong.

We sustain cultural traditions and craftsmanship. We strive to focus on and buy only the handmade, the high quality, the authentic and the wholehearted. And by doing so, we support and sustain timeless artisanal techniques—like hand-stamped batiks, silk saris, hand-blocked textiles, hand-beaded jewelry and embroidery—and cultural traditions like world music, meditation, yoga, Ayurveda and more.

… and we never forget that people, not profits, are the point of it all. Pete and Kim founded Mexicali Blues because they wanted jobs that enable them to travel often, share and sustain the diverse cultures they care about, contribute to their community in Maine, and to spend time with the people they love. You can feel it the moment you walk into any one of our stores—a kaleidoscope of colors, cultures and joy. People are happy here. And people are happy to BE here.