| Industry | Retail (Apparel) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Shanghai, China |
Key people | Co-Founders Carol Chyau Marie So |
| Products | Clothing, accessories, knitting yarn, housewares |
| Website | www.shokay.com |
SHOKAY is a socially responsible textiles brand that creates premium knitwear, yarn and fabric from yak down. They both design their own products for their SHOKAY Collection and partner with other brands and designers to use their yak yarn in their own collections.
SHOKAY yak down derives its unique origins from the mountainous Himalayan regions of western China. Their fibers are hand-combed from the yaks that dwell there, and which continue to serve as a life source for their Tibetan herders. From this down comes a soft and beautiful fabric. They source their fibers directly from Tibetan communities in the Qinghai region to ensure the highest quality, traceability, and social impact.
SHOKAY products are currently carried in over 130 high-end boutiques across Europe and Japan and in the SHOKAY showroom in Shanghai, China.
History
editSHOKAY began in 2006 when Carol Chyau and a team of Harvard students visited Western China to look for inspirations to start a social enterprise. They observed that local Tibetans only have an annual income of US$350, but have on average 30-40 yaks as assets. They saw a need for innovation to alleviate poverty—but also an abundance of resources, namely, yaks. They recognized this as an opportunity to help create a sustainable income source for and improve the livelihoods of local communities in the region, and the idea for SHOKAY was born. SHOKAY would revolutionize the yak industry by introducing yak wool to the global market.
They discovered that yaks not only have a fiber that is comparable to cashmere, but that 80% of the world's yak population was in Western China. If cashmere can be a multi-billion dollar industry, then one day so can yak down. [1]
These observations inspired Carol to start SHOKAY, a business that endeavors to connect development needs with consumer needs by increasing the value of yak down. [2]
Social Enterprise
editShokay is founded on the increasingly popular idea that social enterprises can be a more innovative alternative to traditional corporate social responsibility or nonprofit organization approaches to solving social problems.[3] Founders Carol Chyau and Marie So were named 2008 Fellows by Echoing Green, a nonprofit organization that makes early-stage social investments and aims to support and promote social entrepreneurship. Other leading social entrepreneurship organizations include the Skoll Foundation, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and Ashoka.
Development Impact
editAccording to Shokay's website, the company creates development impact in four ways:
- Direct income generation - Shokay provides long-term employment and increased income to nomadic herders.
- Preservation of local culture - Shokay aims to increase the economic value of yak herding, a traditional way of life for ethnic Tibetans.
- Sustainable use of resources - The raw fiber is naturally shed once a year, allowing for the preservation of the yaks.
- Community development work - Shokay indicates that it has plans to invest some of its profits to address social problems in the communities from which it sources.[4]
SHOKAY has cultivated an atmosphere of understanding and dedication in its team on how to respect the culture and traditions of the communities with whom they work.
In 2007, SHOKAY began its operations in Hei Ma He Township in Qinghai Province, which is home to more than 28,065 yaks, or 30 to 40 per family. More than 90 percent of the population struggles to survive with a per capita income of $333 or RMB2,100 and have limited access to quality education, infrastructure, and healthcare. Women, in particular, have limited livelihood opportunities, restricted to ad hoc seasonal work such as digging caterpillar fungus, an important and expensive ingredient in Chinese medicine, or construction work in the neighboring towns. To maximize income from selling yak fiber, SHOKAY sourced directly from local herders—and continues to do so today. To improve the quality of the yak fibers, they conducted training on proper fiber shearing methods. The goal is to pay a higher price than the market in return for higher-quality fiber and their work has helped increase the annual household income for families in Hei Ma He by 10 to 30 percent.
In 2009, SHOKAY piloted the Women’s Hand Spin Program as another way to improve local livelihoods. Through this program, the social enterprise strove to bolster spinners’ productivity by teaching them how to use a spinning wheel instead of a spindle. In 2012, SHOKAY formally converted the pilot program into the Qinghai Women’s Handspinning Cooperative.
Beyond keystone income generation and economic development programs, they have begun incorporating community development projects into their work. Based on the results of household-level surveys they conducted in Hei Ma He, which found lack of awareness about basic healthcare the greatest need of the community, in 2010, they began organizing healthcare training. SHOKAY has invited local doctors to their community to lead their public health training and to treat patients. Over two days, more than 300 people joined the training and 270 people were treated. Although the needs and socioeconomic problems are still overwhelming, they are making progress in addressing them.
Design and Research Center
editIn 2013, SHOKAY set up the SHOKAY Design & Research Center in Shanghai’s International Fashion Education Center. Not only is it the first in the world, it also marks a milestone of SHOKAY’s collaboration with designers and promotion of yak. Through the Center, they have increased their work with many international brands and designers to encourage them to use yak fibers in their collections. In the same way that products made with Australian wool carry a Woolmark tag, or American cotton a cotton tag, designers and brands that use SHOKAY fibers can use a SHOKAY yarns tag.
Yaks
editWarmer than wool and as soft as cashmere, yak wool products offer comfort and quality as the new essentials of knitwear.
Yaks are the lifeline of the Tibetan people. China’s Western region is home to more than 80 percent of the world’s yak population. For centuries, nomads in the region have used yak materials to make a wide variety of products—from ropes to tents. Unaware of the potential market value of yak down, in particular, they haven’t leveraged this resource to create products on a large scale for international markets.
Their outer guard hairs are used to make waterproof tents and ropes; their soft inner down is used to make clothing and blankets; their milk is made into yak butter; their backs are used to carry heavy items; and their meat is consumed as a source for protein.
Founders
editSHOKAY’s co-founders, Carol Chyau and Marie So, met in 2005 when they were classmates at the Harvard Kennedy School’s MPA/ID program. Carol, from Taiwan, and Marie, from Hong Kong, saw in each other the passion and perseverance to promote the social enterprise in the Greater China region.
They garnered a group and devised a business plan for SHOKAY, conceiving it initially as a social enterprise that would sell premium knitting yarn, and submitted it to the Harvard Business Plan Competition, Social Enterprise Track. They placed first, winning $10,000. With the prize money, they traveled to and trekked all over China following the footprints of yaks.
They sought out yak and textile experts from leading global organizations—from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York to the Esquel Group in China, one of the largest cotton shirt manufacturers in the world. After their field research, they had enough confidence to give the idea a try. In November 2006, SHOKAY was formally founded in Hong Kong.
In 2006, after almost a year of researching and brainstorming, they decided that the best way to help catalyze the growth of social enterprise in China was to start one themselves. The two won several business plan competitions in its early days, and have continued to earn various distinctions for their work, including: – 2008 Marie and Carol are selected as Echoing Green Fellows – 2009 Marie is selected as one of the 100 Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum – 2009 Carol is the Asian Finalist in the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards – 2012 SHOKAY won the UNESCO Award of Excellence – 2012 Carol Chyau selected as “30 under 30 in Forbes Magazine Awards
Today, Carol Chyau is at the helm of a yak revolution. Based at their Shanghai design center and showroom, Ms. Chyau leads SHOKAY’s growth through strategic partnerships and business development efforts globally.