Celebrating March Gladness
With Spring finally here, we’re grateful for longer, warmer days and a symbolic time for new beginnings. After a much-needed rainy winter, Southern California is experiencing a “Super Bloom” of wildflowers that are like splashes of bright paint across the normally barren hills. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to see Mother Nature showing off for ourselves, so we made our way down to Lake Elsinore to snap a few photos in our classic black ManiTees shirt…
And FYI, no wildflowers were harmed during the taking of this photo. Unfortunately, thousands of people are descending upon the region for their IG, and not all of them are respectful of this fragile beauty. So if you’re in the area, please be considerate and don’t damage the flowers!
In keeping with the theme of nature and the beauty of our world, this month’s shirts are dedicated to cleaning our oceans that give so much life and ask for so little in return – but more on that in a minute. Right now, we’d like to talk about two really cool things that happened recently:
We had our FIRST POPUP STORE!
Melissa Wong founded House of Gratia et Caritas (known simply as “House of G&C”) in 2013 to provide tasteful coverage of charitable companies that give back fashionably. The name “House of Gratia et Caritas” comes from Melissa’s love of Latin — ‘Gratia’ means grace and thankfulness while ‘Caritas’ means charity, so naturally we’re a great fit!
Mani with Melissa, owner of House of G&C, and Nisonja, owner of Mahana.
For International Women’s Day, Melissa generously opened her store to local LA female entrepreneurs and invited Manitees co-founder Mani Disuanco to not only offer our merch, but also speak on a panel with other boss influencers! It was an honor.
In other news, we got a shoutout by THE TRAILER PARK BOYS!
In addition to their wildly popular Netflix series, Canada’s funniest exports host several shows on their Swearnet channel. You might not guess it based on their raunchy humor, but these boys have very big hearts and gave us a sweet shoutout to their fans worldwide! After all, good karma knows no borders…
Speaking of no borders, we don’t need to tell you that our oceans are in hot water – no pun intended. Every MINUTE, a garbage truck's worth of plastic is dumped into them :-( That’s why this month’s motto is “DON’T SUCK” – as in, don’t use plastic straws! Paper straws are good, but reusable straws are great!
Whether you love the beach or seafood / sushi (I mean, who doesn’t??) or just fundamentally don't want to ruin this little blue marble we call home, there ARE things we can do! :-) So help us donate 50% of all profits from our new collection to Oceana.org – after all, one wave may not be much… but when we are all waves, we can make an ocean of impact.
Going With The Flow,
Mani & Brendan
