Kindhumans is one of my favorite places to shop for ethical, sustainable, socially-conscious gifts - not least because they give back 3% to the cause of your choice.
I caught up with Kindhumans Cofounder Justin Wilkenfeld to learn more about his journey.
Afdhel Aziz: Justin, welcome. Please tell us a little bit of how you came to cofound Kindhumans?
Justin Wilkenfeld: First off, thanks for having me! Kindhumans is the culmination of years spent seeking less toxic and more sustainable options for our family, combined with a strong desire to provide marketing resources to nonprofits and businesses doing good things. We see a lot of opportunity in businesses offering better, more conscious, and more sustainable solutions for people and the planet, and want to help grow this movement.
In 2017, I left GoPro after nearly a decade of working with a tight-knit family of friends and a building an awe-inspiring community of fans and users. I simply needed a break after an amazing - and exhausting - run. The GoPro family made magic happen with the brand and business we built, and I learned a ton from the process of being in the early stages through an IPO. That experience definitely played a significant role in setting the stage for us to create Kindhumans.
My wife Suzi and I started our family in 2014 and are raising two incredible kids; in our case it was also a catalyst that brought greater attention to the products our family consumes. We started asking questions and learned that there are a growing number of companies trying to reduce toxins, increase transparency and ethical standards, and create products that were better for us and the environment. Suzi dove deep into researching and learned about ingredients, toxicity, supply chains, and social and environmental impact within consumer products. While we still have much to improve upon ourselves, we have made changes to many of our consumption habits - with positive results.
This journey inspired us to develop Kindhumans.com, a curated marketplace of ethical, sustainable products. We strive to make the selection process easier for consumers by doing the research and taking much of the guesswork out of it. Our long-term goal is building a robust platform with an ecosystem of community tools that provide value to the community and the causes we support through giveback programs. Every purchase on Kindhumans.com makes an impact through a nonprofit partner. We track that impact and reward customers for making the world a kinder place through their purchases, along with other engagement tools we have planned for the future.
Aziz: Thanks for sharing that epic journey! Why did you decide to focus on creating a marketplace of ethical, sustainable goods as your follow-up?
Wilkenfeld: The marketplace was largely founded on the idea that consumer habits are driving many of the health, social, and economic challenges facing humanity. With more thoughtful individual choices we can make a huge positive impact together. As parents, this resonated with us - yet it was incredibly hard to find products and they were never in one place. We want our platform to make it easier for consumers to find quality products while also giving back to causes.
Members of our team helped grow GoPro, Red Bull and other brands, so we felt compelled to leverage our backgrounds to create a business centered on solutions for the present and the future. We launched our marketplace in November 2019 with aspirations of building a global brand that stands for kindness and a social impact business platform focused on products and services that meet our criteria.
Aziz: Very cool. Please tell us about this idea of Cause, Community and Commerce that drives the brand?
Wilkenfeld: We are focused on our 3 Cs: Community, Commerce and Cause. So far, community response to the brand, products, and storytelling has been amazing and humbling. There are so many genuinely kind people out there doing their best daily to help improve our world. There is a community that yearns for better product options and solutions. There are also so many great stories of humans acting upon principles of kindness. Much of our “why” is based on that fact. We feel like it all starts with community engagement which fuels commerce via the Kindhumans “Marketplace for Good.”
Causes benefit as members of our community shop too, with an automatic giveback of at least 3% to nonprofit partners. We also do some fun collaborations with partners like Nocking Point Wines, Melin hats, and artist Hannah Eddy that benefit nonprofit partners with higher donation amounts. We have supported organizations such as Stoked.org, 501CTHREE.org, and Sea-Trees.org through our combined efforts.
We call this a virtuous cycle, where community feeds commerce, which feeds cause and inspires people to keep participating by tracking and rewarding the positive impact they are making. Our goal is to make kindness cool, promote conscious consumption, and elevate participation and giving as things we should all be doing as members of society. We strive to make it easier to make a positive difference through our platform, with the understanding that small changes in daily habits can have a big effect through our joint communal efforts.
Aziz: And what are some of your favorite products in the store?
Wilkenfeld: Some of my favorite products are the Jack Henry products for men, the Kindhumans coloring book and a hat collaboration we did recently with an awesome brand, Melin. Jack Henry is a plant-based, organic skin care line for men, a category where it is not always easy to identify non-toxic, planet friendly products. The Kindhumans coloring book was our first real collaboration with an artist, local Encinitas legend Skye Walker. The book opens with a “pledge of kindness” that kids are encouraged to sign. The response to the pledge from parents is really special and our daughter’s class even recites the pledge regularly! The Melin hat collaboration is a recent favorite on many levels. Melin makes premium hats built to last and included our classic message, “Kindness. Pass it on.” on a new model with a portion of proceeds going to nonprofit partners. The response has been incredible and it warms the heart knowing more messages of kindness are out in the wild.
Aziz: I’m going to check all these brands out! Finally what’s next for Kind Humans? What do you see the future as?
Wilkenfeld: Next steps are to significantly grow our community and membership programs, grow our shop, produce more collaborations for causes and to make a positive impact as our business grows into a serious catalyst for good!
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