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Craft Credo No. 2: Serve your community first. That includes sourcing supplies from your neighbors as a goal. This often takes the form of using regional ingredients like hops or barley (like when Shipyard Brewing added locally grown malted barley from Maine Malt House to its Export Ale) or even buying a vessel from a local manufacturer (like when Schlafly Beer bought its foeders from Foeder Crafters of America, which is Missouri-based as well).
Maui Brewing Co. embraces this local-first philosophy. The company recently announced its continued partnership with Maui Screen Printing into 2018. The owners of both companies have a connection that spans over a decade. John Edellstein, owner of Maui Screen Printing, was originally a bartender at Maui Brewing’s Lahaina Pub. In 2010, Edellstein first created his own version of “HI I like you” Positive Apparel shirts, which Maui Brewing still carries in its retail apparel inventory. To the press release!
“The support and leadership of Garrett and Melanie [the owners of Maui Brewing] has allowed my company to align core values and pursue sustainable clothing and eco-friendly printing techniques. The continued mentoring has allowed us to become the largest eco-friendly shop in the Hawaiian Islands,” said Edellstein.
Keeping aligned with Maui Brewing Co,’s environmental efforts (that’s Craft Credo No. 4, fight for the environment), Maui Screen Printing is a founding partner of AllMade fabric, a textile experience developed from: 50 percent Repreve polyester made from recycled plastic water bottles; 25 percent organic combed, ring-spun cotton from small farmers in Texas and the Carolinas; and 25 percent Modal, a bi-product of beechwood trees which allows the fabric to be dyed, stretched and heated. The creation of the fabric employs 3,500 American workers.
To globalize the story, AllMade then ships the fabric to Haiti, a small island 180 miles from the United States, where 185 Haitian adults are employed to stitch the shirts. These employees are working above the living wage and profits support the Global Orphan Project. Isn’t that an awesome business concept? Props to Maui Brewing for supporting such an excellent business model.
