The story of Ruby Pinwheels goes something like this! Two women who have had successful careers in business begin thinking they’d like to have jobs that provide more personal flexibility and allow them to promote some of the causes about which they are passionate. So after much discussion and evaluation, they decided to take their hard earned knowledge about how to start and run a successful business and apply it to the area of natural and organic products for infants and children. For more about the founders click here.

Where did that idea come from?

Between the two of us we hold the roles of mother, grandmother, aunt, godmother, and friend, and we’ve purchased products for the children in our lives for years. Both of us have had increasing awareness of the benefits of using and wearing natural and organic products. Personal benefits result in improvement of the health and welfare of the kids we love as well as community benefits that come from practices that are environmentally friendly and meant to sustain rather than harm our environment. As we’ve looked into purchasing these products we’ve found it challenging to locate information on what is available and to evaluate the benefits of each. Although there is a lot of data out there, it is difficult to collate, understand, and process.

From this challenge was born the idea of starting an online community that offers products that meet baseline criteria to realize health, environmental and fair trade benefits. And we felt it important that our online community further provide the information necessary for customers to evaluate the products we offer and decide which best satisfy their particular needs. Each child is different and we want to offer choices so you can decide what is best for your loved ones.

What about the fair trade angle?

We’ve both benefited from living in communities where we were provided the resources and support to be successful professionally and to be able to start our own businesses. We are keenly aware that many around the world do not have the same nurturing environments and as a result are very passionate about promoting partners who provide opportunities for economic independence for women and for individuals in disadvantaged situations. We search out woman-owned businesses and other organizations that provide environments where individuals can earn sustainable incomes that can help break the cycles of poverty and violence. We’ve been incredibly gratified to find so many wonderful groups doing so much and are privileged to work with them.

Doesn’t that all sound so serious?

Yes it is, but another “critical success factor” for us when starting this business was to do something where we could have fun. And where we could express our creative, stylish sides. Yes all those years in corporate America didn’t extinguish those portions of our personality! Doing the right thing for our children, our environment, and our communities should not have to be painful, ugly, dull or boring. And we’ve been delighted to find in our product research that it is not. We offer many gorgeous, stylish, expressive products at Ruby Pinwheels and we think you’ll find it incredibly fun to be responsible!

OK, where did Ruby Pinwheels come from?

A pinwheel is a child’s toy that almost all of us played with at some point. To us, it represents simplicity and balance as demonstrated by its basic yet elegant construction. And it brings thoughts of joy, creativity, and imagination as we picture children running through the yard with the wind blowing their pinwheel. Ruby is derived from the Latin word rubens meaning red and the elements associated with this color through time have been fire and blood implying warmth and life for mankind. Ruby gemstones are believed to stimulate the heart chakra and to help one change - moving you from the person you are today to the one you want to be. To us the combination of these two words, ruby and pinwheel, represents what we want your experience to be with our company – simple and fun yet one that promotes balance and positive change in our communities.