Every month we are committed to reflecting on where we’ve been and where we are going. This month was a wild ride in a completely awe inspiring way. If you followed us on Facebook or on Instagram, you saw we started April after a few days spent in New York at Eileen Fisher. The Eileen Fisher Foundation selected several woman-owned small businesses to provide mentorship and development immersion. We joined five other incredible brands and chronicled our experiences in one of our first Facebook Live videos.
A few days later, we entered the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. In a few short days, with the support of the Sword & Plough community, we were named one of the FedEx Small Business Grant Top 100 Finalist. We are so excited to announce that we were just named the Grand Prize winner! We are looking forward to putting the grant funding toward hiring a veteran to help Sword & Plough with inventory and supply chain management. We are also planning to expand our Brand Champion Program!
We didn’t stop celebrating our FedEx selection, as we immediately headed into our birthday week recognition. It has been four years of non stop growth. We spent every day sharing our favorite highlights. And of course, we felt it was better to give than to receive, so we gave away four of our favorite products. Each giveaway represented a product we introduced in a given year of our growth. Our Sword & Plough community overwhelmed us with their patriotic submissions of who inspires them, from service members, veterans, and military spouses to close friends and family members.
And as we embark on our fifth year, we welcome another new product, our 50 caliber brass rings, just in time for Mother’s Day. The rings come in a set of three and are handcrafted by Shanna Rodenberg, a U.S. Army veteran and artist. They are going to make a great Mother’s Day gift and we plan on giving one to our Mom! They are classic, timeless, and make the perfect accessory for any outfit.
Part of what makes a gift from Sword & Plough special is that it both supports veteran jobs and gives back to veterans through our 10% for vets commitment, where we donate 10% of our profits each year to veteran organizations. We work hard to create economic opportunities for veterans and are proud we have supported 65 veteran jobs, while repurposing over 35,000 pounds of military surplus. By repurposing textiles, we do our part to reduce the large quantities of water, energy, fertilizers, pesticides and emissions involved in manufacturing new textiles. In addition to up-cycling surplus fabrics into our products, we employ environmental manufacturing processes such as 100% domestic sourcing of all fabrics in order to reduce fuel consumption and emissions during transport. We also incorporate recycled materials within our packaging. As the world celebrated Earth Day on April 22, 2017, we at Sword & Plough work hard to honor our planet every day.
It is hard to believe so much happened in the month April. We can’t wait to update you next month!
Cheers,
The Sword & Plough team